Western Field Ornithologists September 2020 Newsletter

Black Skimmers, Marbled Godwits, and Forster’s Terns. Imperial Beach, San Diego County. 3 September 2009. Photo by Thomas A. Blackman.

Christopher Swarth, Newsletter Editor http://westernfieldornithologists.org/

What’s Inside….

Farewell from President Kurt Leuschner Welcome to New Board Members Alan Craig Remembers the Early Days of WFO Jon and Kimball on Bird Taxonomy and the NACC Western Regional Bird Highlights by Paul Lehman Steve Howell: A Big Year by Foot in Town Over-eager Nuthatches and Willing Sapsuckers Meet the WFO Board Members Awards and new WFO Leadership Kimball’s Life and Covid-time in a New Home Book reviews Student Research Field Notes and Art Announcements and News Kurt Leuschner’s President’s Farewell These past two years have been an interesting time to be the President of Western Field Ornithologists. We had one of our most successful conferences in Albuquerque, and just before the lockdown we completed a very memorable WFO field trip to Tasmania. We accomplished a lot together, and I look forward to assisting with future planning when the world opens up again – and it will! While we may not know exactly what lies ahead, we certainly won’t take anything for granted. We’re in the midst of a worldwide discourse about the serious impacts of social injustice. How the ornithological community can help improve the experiences of minorities in field ornithology continues to be on our minds as we move forward into 2021. Our new WFO Diversity and Inclusivity subcommittee has met two times already, and we will continue to discover and to implement ways to bring more under- represented groups into the world of birds. We hope that you will join us in this endeavor. We have a conference planned for 25-29 August 2021 in Reno, Nevada when we can celebrate our 50th anniversary one year late! As the current situation improves, watch for other opportunities to get in the field with WFO in email announcements, newsletters, and on our recently refurbished website. It’s been a pleasure and an honor to serve you as President. I thank you all for this incredible opportunity as I slip into my new role as Past-President and Chair of the Finance Committee. Please continue to contact me anytime at [email protected] Kurt M. Leuschner, Past-President, Western Field Ornithologists

Welcome New WFO Board Members! At the September board meeting, conducted by Zoom, the board voted on a slate of four board members. A few days later the membership voted by email and affirmed this slate. Wendy Beers was elected for a 2nd three-year term. In addition, three new members were elected to the board: Susan Smith Gilliland, Andrew Mauro, and Kristie Nelson. We congratulate them all and look forward to their energy and ideas! Susan Gilliland, Ph.D., has extensive experience in nursing and public health research. She has spent many years developing and guiding youth birding programs, principally for Pasadena Audubon, a group that has donated significantly to the WFO Student Programs Committee. She and others have recently established LAB (Los Angeles Birders) and LAB-S (Los Angeles Birders - Students) and has been part of our Student Programs Committee. Susan lives in Pasadena, California. Andrew Mauro has a degree in English Literature, and an MBA in Marketing. His background is market research and he was owner and president of a wholesale greenhouse cut-flower nursery. He’s been president of San Diego Field Ornithologists and he assisted in the San Diego bird and plant atlases. He has organized fund-raising for numerous conservation projects, including the purchase of land for sanctuaries. Recently he moved north from San Diego County to Gig Harbor, Washington, where it turns out that his neighbor is Joyce Meyer, a previous WFO Board member. Kristie Nelson has a B.S. in Wildlife Biology from Humboldt State University. She’s been closely associated with Point Blue Conservation Science for well over a decade as a Field Biologist, much of that time spent on the Farallon Islands. She’s also a biologist for the Mono Lake Committee and has done much to promote and manage conservation projects at Mono Lake. She has served many years on both the California Bird Records Committee and the ABA Checklist Committee. She has authored numerous publications on birds and other fauna. Kristie lives with her husband on a farm/ranch just north of Lee Vining, California.

1 Alan Craig on the Early Days of WFO

Alan Craig was a founder in 1970 of California Field Ornithologists (later to become Western Field Ornithologists) and he was the first editor of the organization’s journal California Birds (later, renamed Western Birds). In 1987, WFO instituted the Alan M. Craig Award, to be given on an irregular basis for “exceptional service, leadership and dedication to WFO over a sustained period of time.” The award honors Alan’s dedication and commitment to WFO and in 1987 he became the first recipient of this award. Since then, only four other WFO members have received the Craig Award. These notes are based on a phone interview with Alan that took place in May 2020.

Alan emphasized that there were many individuals in the early days of WFO who made our organization a success:

“I was just one of six founders of CFO/WFO, and all six of us were editors of the 3 years of California Birds. Guy McCaskie was the driving force that started and kept the organization going. Pierre Devillers played a major role for the 3+ years that he was in San Diego (getting his PhD at LaJolla) both in setting high standards for the journal, for the bird records committee, and for the organization, as well as helping to write the California Checklist, etc. Ginger Johnson was key, as were Guy McCaskie and Cliff Lyons. Ginger, after 50 years, is still serving as Graphic Manager! “

Alan recalled how they would stuff issues of California Birds into mailing envelopes and send them off to members in the mail. Work in those days was done with a typewriter. Lots of typing and retyping of manuscripts. Editorial comments were made by pencil in the margins of a manuscript.

“Laurie Binford was a big help in getting an Editorial Board established with representatives from most western states and provinces to solicit and review manuscripts. Laurie was a very good editor/reviewer.” Alan in Australia, 1991 Laurie had told Alan, “You always send me the worst manuscripts to edit.” After three years of California Birds it became apparent that a larger area of coverage was needed to attract enough manuscripts, and that the journal needed only one editor and not six. “So I became it until someone more qualified could be found.”

Alan went on to explain…”In the 1970s the founders felt that California Birds filled a critical niche. The Condor, Auk, and Wilson Bulletin were becoming more and more technical and these journals were not publishing many articles on population status, occurrence, range expansions, or regional and state

2 records. At this time in the 1970s, field ornithologists were making many discoveries about migration patterns, vagrants and rarities, field marks for difficult-to-identify species, and new occurrence records in the west. A new journal was needed to publish these articles and records, and California Birds soon occupied this niche that had been left vacant by the other journals. The founders wanted California Birds (and later, Western Birds), to be a solid, factually-correct journal but at the same time, not to become too technical. Experts in California and later in other western states were contacted and asked to submit papers for the journal. In the beginning it was not easy getting manuscripts. Laurie Binford was a big help in getting researchers to submit manuscripts to the journal.”

Alan commented that even in the early 1970s there were a lot of good birders in San Diego, Los Angeles, and in the Bay Area. Also, as well as in Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. Many became members of WFO and others began to submit articles to the journal.

Joseph R. Jehl, Jr. was a professional (now retired) with considerable experience both writing and reviewing papers for major ornithology journals. At that time Joe was Curator of Birds at San Diego Natural History Museum. I had no previous experience editing anything and Joe was a great help to me particularly in matters of grammar and punctuation, including what was customary usage in both American and British bird journals. One example of the invaluable lessons he taught was the myriad of details one needs to examine upon receipt of the printer’s blue line, the proof of an entire issue. He shared his knowledge with the other five of us who co-edited the first three years of what was then California Birds.

Gradually there developed a sense among CFO that the group should expand beyond the boundaries of California. There was resistance by some members to change from CFO to WFO. Although some wanted to keep the group California-centered, most wanted to broaden to all of western North America. At a meeting at Ted Chandik’s house in Palo Alto the CFO leaders decided to rename the organization the Western Field Ornithologists.

Expenses were low in early days. Ginger Johnson and Jean Craig (now Jean Terschuren, another of the six founders/editors) visited many printers and found a good, reasonably-priced, off-set printing company in National City and they printed the journal for many years using this printing technique. Cliff Lyons was the first treasurer. Attorney Jerry Johnson took care of the legal paperwork needed to make WFO a formal non-profit organization.

Alan remembered many fun pelagic trips out of San Diego. They went offshore on fishing boats as this was before there were any boats dedicated specifically to pelagic birding trips. Sometimes the skipper would change routes to take advantage of a good fishing spot that was just discovered.

Alan related a funny story from the early days. At one of the first meetings of WFO board and journal editors in Monterey, Guy McCaskie wanted everyone to wear a suit and tie because this was a mark of a professional organization! (Suits are not current board attire – CS)

Alan emphasized that Phil Unitt is doing an outstanding job as editor and that today Western Birds is a tremendous journal. Phil is very good at going after and getting manuscripts.

Alan suggested that when we prepare summaries of our annual conferences, the photos of people should have captions in which all the people are named and something is said about what is going on in the photograph.

Thinking about the future, Alan thought it would be fun for WFO to hold a meeting in a barn or somewhere out in the country where everyone could pitch a tent and sit around the campfire. This would be a welcome contrast to our current annual meetings which must be held in a hotel or conference center in order to accommodate all the many members.

3 The American Ornithological Society’s North American Classification Committee: What it is, how it works, what it does

By Jon L. Dunn and Kimball L. Garrett

[Note: Incoming WFO President Jon Dunn has been a member of the AOU Check-list Committee since 2000; co-author Kimball Garrett counts himself among the legions of ornithologists, birders, wildlife managers, and others who are constituents of that Committee.]

Birders are infatuated with species lists, and lists need taxonomic authorities. For North America this has long been the American Ornithologists’ Union’s Check-list of North American Birds. And while stability in lists generated by taxonomic authorities is desirable, birders also know that things change regularly – from species-level taxonomy to higher level groupings, species sequences, and English names. [And, as we’ll see below, not only do bird names change over time, but so too do the names of organizations, committees, and journals.]. We explore here how these changes come about.

The taxonomy and nomenclature of North American birds has long been determined by a committee of the American Ornithologists’ Union (now the American Ornithological Society or AOS) called the Committee on Classification and Nomenclature; the committee name is now often abbreviated as the NACC for “North American Classification Committee.” The Committee has published seven editions of the Check-list of North American Birds (1886, 1895, 1910, 1931, 1957, 1982, and 1998), along with 61 Supplements. The Supplements, appearing in the July issue of the Auk (to be renamed in 2021 as, Iceland Gull ("Thayer's Gull," Larus glaucoides thayeri). simply, Ornithology) were published Marin County, California. 22 December 2003. Photo by Larry Sansone. annually from 1944 to 1956, but then none appeared until 1973. One might surmise that had the annual Supplements continued after 1956, “Thayer’s Gull” would have been considered a subspecies of Iceland Gull (Larus glaucoides) after the publication of Macpherson (1961), rather than continuing to be treated as a subspecies of Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) until 1973 whereupon it was treated as a separate species after Smith (1966). That year, in addition to the Thayer’s Gull being split (now finally treated as a subspecies of Iceland Gull), the Alder Flycatcher (Empidonax alnorum) was split from the Traill’s Flycatcher complex, the other species being called the Willow Flycatcher (Empidonax traillii). Other than those two splits of Iceland Gull ("Thayer's Gull," Larus glaucoides thayeri) cryptic species, 1973’s Supplement will long be San Francisco. 22 November 2011. Photo by known as the “Big Lump,” with some dozen Larry Sansone. species being merged.

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The decisions announced in the Supplements are based on motions that are circulated in three or four batches during the year. These are assembled by the Chair (now R. Terry Chesser) and circulated. Voting typically takes place from October through March. At least two-thirds of the committee must approve any change to the status quo. At present the Committee is composed of twelve members, thus eight affirmative votes are required. The Chair often does not vote, unless the vote is close. The members are usually professional ornithologists, often from the faculties of universities. Motions are usually developed from peer-reviewed articles that appear in journals. Motions are often written by NACC members, but often in recent years are written by non-members. The chair reviews them in advance. The votes of NACC members are shared during the voting process, and sometimes votes change based on the comments from other members. Although decisions are tentatively reached, none is final until the manuscript of the Supplement is submitted and published, usually appearing on-line in June. Prior to the Supplement the motions are put on-line, batch by batch. After the Supplement is published, the actual comments and votes, but without attribution by name, are also put on-line. If a motion does not pass, the failed motions are briefly listed at the end of the report. New published evidence may well result in a re- consideration.

The AOS also sponsors a South American Checklist Committee (SACC) which was established in 1998; there is some overlap in membership of the two committees. The NACC and SACC work closely with each other and agree on treatments, but there can be a time lag. This usually involves the time it takes for the one committee to consider the motion and then after a decision is reached for the other committee to reformulate a new motion to consider.

Matters involving new distributional records are vetted first by state and provincial committees, where they exist, or by Middle American national committees. For species new to the ABA area, the NACC waits for review by the American Birding Association’s Checklist Committee (ABA-CLC); in most cases the NACC follows the ABA-CLC on issues of identification and origin, while the ABA-CLC follows the NACC on taxonomy and nomenclature. There are only a few instances where ABA and AOS have reached different decisions.

The NACC also is responsible for nomenclature. English names (a list of French names is maintained as well) often provoke the most vigorous debates within the Committee. In recent years there has been an explosion of debate about changing all English eponymous names, over 140 in the AOS area, close to 100 in the ABA area. The debate on this continues, but we feel that this is not the place to further elucidate this controversial and ever-changing debate. The Committee, and, we believe, the birding community as a whole, gives strong deference to nomenclatural stability. The current English names may not be the best names (e.g. Ring-necked Duck, Green Heron, etc.), but they have a long history of usage, and the few English names that have been changed, for one reason or another, are usually not greeted with much support.

Maintaining a taxonomic list requires constant review of published studies, but also a coherent philosophy on species concepts, algorithms for determining the linear sequence of taxa, and consistency in defining higher level groups. All of these processes have seen refinement over the last several decades. The NACC explicitly adheres to the Biological Species Concept (BSC); a detailed explanation can be found in the introduction to the 7th edition (1998) on pages xiv to xv. In other words, the Committee puts weight on essential reproductive isolation and the shape and extent of zones of hybridization, rather than relying exclusively on diagnosability. Application of the BSC has varied – witness the “Big Lump” supplement of 1973 (remember the “Northern Oriole?) in which taxa which formed hybrid zones tended to be lumped; this approach has shifted in ensuing decades, particularly as emerging molecular data frequently showed that hybrid zones didn’t even involve sister species. By the 7th edition in 1998 many of these “lumps” were reversed. Since tests of reproductive isolation are not possible with allopatric (geographically non-overlapping) populations, decisions on species status of

5 allopatric forms have become more methodical, incorporating vocal and other behavioral information in addition to standard morphological differences.

The NACC is increasingly charged with interpreting an explosion of molecular studies – nearly every North American avian taxon has by now been subjected to multiple molecular analyses, with a forest of phylogenetic trees published annually. Early molecular studies such as protein electrophoresis and DNA-DNA hybridization, groundbreaking at the time but primitive in light of current technologies, began to shed light on phylogenetic relationships in the 1970s and 1980s, but the field has since expanded to the point where entire genomes are being sequenced and molecular systematists can pinpoint portions of the genome that are maximally informative at varying scales from the early divergence of major avian groups right down to the species and population levels. The trick, of course, is how to statistically massage and interpret the reams of molecular data we can now generate, and how to incorporate those data into a “total evidence” taxonomic decision-making strategy that also includes datasets on morphology, vocalizations, behavior, ecological niches, and the fossil record.

Adhering to the BSC means that the NACC is a proponent of the subspecies concept. Although the last Check-list to include subspecies was published way back in 1957, the Committee frequently reiterates its intention to treat subspecies in a future check-list volume.

In the next WFO Newsletter, we will address various case histories. As one example, we note that the lumping of Baltimore (Icterus galbula) and Bullock’s (I. bullockii) orioles was based on frequent hybridization in the central Great Plains. A reconsideration of the issue a few decades later led to a reversal of that decision. The hybrid zone had spread west, and genetic research later revealed that Bullock’s and Baltimore weren't even sister species. Needless to say the birding public did not welcome the English name for the combined species pair (“Northern Oriole”), and this included baseball fans and an entire mid-Atlantic city! Uniforms and hats were not changed to accommodate the NACC. We’ll also explore how the AOS-NACC fits in with the several global bird checklists as we work toward a goal of a single standard check-list of all of the birds of the world.

In closing, we urge readers to avail themselves of the wealth of information on the AOS-NACC web site: https://americanornithology.org/nacc/ . Here you will find current and past proposals, the complete species list of North American birds, policies on English names, and the contents of all recent supplements as well as the 7th edition of the Check-list.

We thank Dan Gibson and Terry Chesser for helpful comments on a draft of this article.

Macpherson, A.H. 1961. Observation on Canadian Arctic Larus gulls and on the taxonomy of L. thayeri Brooks. Arctic Institute of North American Technical Paper 7:1-40.

Smith, N. G. 1966. Evolution of some Arctic gull (Larus): an experimental study of isolating mechanisms. Ornithol. Monog. 4.

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Bird News from Western North America

By Paul E. Lehman

Juvenile Shorebirds: Proper Ageing & Identification, and Early Arrival Dates

Shorebirds are one of the favorite avian groups of many a birder: many species, often a challenge to identify, their migrations are spectacular, and vagrancy is a regular phenomenon among most species. Properly ageing shorebirds is often a critical step in properly identifying them, and in more effectively searching for vagrants (e.g., after July, if one is trying to find a locally rare Semipalmated Sandpiper, then one should be looking at juvenile peep, not adults). Juvenile shorebirds are especially appealing, for all the same reasons stated above; plus, what’s not to like about their fresh and intricate plumage patterns, especially when surrounded by worn, faded, late-season adults?! The juveniles of some species are easy to tell from the adults (e.g., most peep, dowitchers, Ruddy Turnstone, Willet), some are slightly more subtle but still fairly straightforward (e.g., plovers, Whimbrel, Red Knot, Spotted & Solitary Sandpipers, tattlers, yellowlegs), and some are yet more difficult but certainly still age-able in the field with care (e.g., Long- billed Curlew, Marbled Godwit, Black Turnstone). If you know that the dowitcher you are looking at is a juvenile, then you know that it is much more straightforward to identify to species than are any plumages of the adults. And, for example, do you know that arriving bright juvenile Least Sandpipers beginning at the end of July, surrounded by duller adult peep or by themselves, are fairly routinely turned into miniature Sharp-tailed Sandpipers or some species of smaller Asian stint by the unknowing and perhaps over-eager observer? Juvenile Long-billed Dowitcher, Ventura County CA, 24 August 2020. Photo by Larry Sansone. Given that shorebirds are prone to making long-distance flights non-stop, and their flight speed is quite fast, it would seem that arrival dates between southern British Columbia, Oregon, and southern California, for example, should not be all that great. Nevertheless, for some species it is a bit more complicated than this (see below). Often the first juvenile shorebird to arrive in southern California is Willet, which is present regularly by the middle of July (the first adults are returning already beginning in mid-June), followed most years by juvenile Wilson’s Phalarope. The first wave of juvenile peep usually appears sometime very soon after 22 July (many birders in California try to make their first juvenile of the season a Semipalmated Sandpiper!), but it seems that the small number of juvenile Asian stints that have been found do not turn up until substantially later in the season (e.g., late August and September), much later than the adults. Late July is also good for the first juvenile Lesser Yellowlegs, followed thereafter by Short-billed Dowitcher, Semipalmated Plover, and Solitary and Spotted Sandpipers, all usually during the last couple days of July and first few days of August. The third week of August is perhaps the time for the first juvenile Whimbrel and Red Knot, then Ruddy Turnstone and perhaps Stilt Sandpiper, followed by Sanderling even later that month. The latest arrivers, which do not usually appear until September, typically include Long-billed Dowitcher and Dunlin. But when exactly do juvenile Black Turnstones and Surfbirds arrive?

7 Some juvenile shorebirds migrate south quickly, not long after attaining full independence, whereas others may linger longer on or near the breeding grounds for a few weeks before heading well to the south, and still a few others may remain on the breeding grounds—or at some intermediate stop-over site—to molt into mostly basic plumage before heading far t o the south. The best North American example of this last group is the Dunlin, in which most molt takes place on or near the breeding grounds, although some birds migrate south to the U.S.- Juvenile Long-billed Dowitcher (center), near Vancouver BC, 22 August 2020. Canada border (e.g., New Photo by Melissa Hafting. England) in September still in mostly juvenal plumage before continuing their molt. But south of there, one can only see Dunlin with just a bit of remnant juvenal plumage when they finally arrive, also in September. In contrast, some other subspecies of Dunlin, such as those that winter in western Europe, migrate before molting, so seeing juveniles well to the south by August is commonplace.

Determining early-arrival dates of juveniles of all local species in late summer and early autumn is a worthwhile study in one’s home region. The summer and early autumn of 2020 were very interesting for such study, with a number of all-time or near all-time early dates set in a number of counties and states/provinces. A partial summary of some interesting findings includes:

Black-bellied Plover: Caution is warranted in differentiating between juveniles and adults in fresh basic plumage, and some early reports of the former over the years have instead involved the latter. Juveniles do not typically arrive in California until early September, which is also true with American Golden- Plovers (but which a juvenile was seen in southwest Washington this year on the somewhat early date of 25 August, N. Lethaby), yet an early juvenile Black-bellied was in San Diego County this year beginning 18 August (pers. obs.). The odd early juvenile Black-bellied in mid-August has also turned up on the East Coast, e.g., a 16 August 2013 bird in Maine, but where also not typically found until September (L. R. Bevier).

Baird’s Sandpiper: The first few days of August is the usual juvenile arrival, but an exceptionally early individual was photographed in Skagit County WA this year on 18 July (fide R. Merrill). Two appearing in Ventura County CA on 6 August (L. Sansone) provided a more typical arrival date regionally.

Pectoral Sandpiper: The first juveniles do not typically appear in California until very late August; yet in 2020, one was in Ventura County on 24 August (L. Sansone).

Least Sandpiper: The first juveniles typically arrive near the end of July; but singles arrived this year in Kitsap County WA on 18 July (B. Waggoner) and in the Vancouver BC area on 19 July (M. Hafting), both slightly early.

8 Semipalmated Sandpiper: The first juvenile ‘Semi’ typically appears in many regions during the early- to-mid- 20s of July. In 2020, very early birds appeared on 12 July in both Ketchikan (extreme southeast) AK and near Vancouver BC, on 13 July in Clatsop County OR, and on 17 July in Sonoma County CA.

Long-billed Dowitcher: Juveniles of this species arrive late, typically not until early September in California, and with the exceptional juvenile found no earlier than about 20 August (fide J. L. Dunn). Juveniles may nevertheless appear slightly earlier in southern British Columbia, where this year the first bird was unusually early on 15 August near Vancouver, and where there were already at least 9 present by 22 August (M. Hafting). An early juvenile in California was in Ventura County on 24 August (L. Sansone).

Greater Yellowlegs: Despite its having a somewhat more southerly breeding range than the above species, and so nesting can commence earlier, juveniles of this species still do not typically appear well south of the breeding range until well into August. The very rare individual has been found as early as July, however, including one in San Diego County on 18 July 2016. This year one was in San Diego County on 23 July (pers. obs.), and another was in Santa Barbara County on 26 July (N. Lethaby).

[Thanks to Jon Dunn and Curtis Marantz for their helpful comments.]

On the Reporting of Some Pesky Species in Summer and Early Fall (P. Lehman)

In the previous newsletter, we looked at reports of unusually early spring arrivals amongst several landbird species. Unfortunately, many of these reports are not well documented, many appearing as postings on local listservs and as yet-to-be-validated (or perhaps incorrectly validated) eBird reports. Such inconclusive or unsubstantiated reports help beget more erroneous reports. And so begins potentially erroneous “conventional wisdom” and databases with too many unsubstantiated records. This kind of error is especially common amongst observers who do not have a solid grounding in the status and distribution of the birds in a region. When observers are unaware at the time of their sighting that such a species is unusual, either geographically or temporally, they tend to not study the bird critically, and thus they are much more likely to make mistakes. Even a fair number of more experienced observers lack adequate knowledge of status and distribution and therefore can get into trouble.

In this month’s installment, I would like to briefly look at several species in California and elsewhere in the West that are the cause of such near-annual summer and early-fall angst: Sharp-shinned Hawk, Merlin, several Empidonax flycatchers, Plumbeous Vireo, Clay-colored Sparrow, Lincoln’s Sparrow, and Virginia’s Warbler.

Sharp-shinned Hawks are reported every summer from regions where they do not breed. And in every case, Cooper’s Hawks are known to summer at these localities. These two species have caused well- known identification issues since the dawn of birding time. Fall migrant Sharpies are not to be expected in many non-breeding areas until September. Birders should make extra efforts to carefully document records of this species away from the breeding range anytime between early May and early September.

Merlins are a lot like Sharp-shinneds in their being reported from non-breeding areas “too late” in spring, during the summer, or “too early” in fall. But unlike Sharp-shinneds, Merlins appear to be increasing in numbers and their nesting range is moving south in much of North America. A few seem to be lingering later in spring and arriving earlier in fall, compared to years ago. Still, confusion with American Kestrels (and other species?) is well known. Merlin sightings in non-breeding regions after early May and before the beginning of September should be carefully documented.

Empidonax flycatchers are likely to appear in every “Pesky” column, and for good reason: tough ID’s and several species that cause plenty of problems. First, a return to spring, where the true status of late-

9 spring migrant Hammond’s Flycatchers probably needs to be carefully assessed. What is their migrant status in late May and the beginning of June, versus Dusky Flycatcher, for example? And what is the early-autumn status during August in places like coastal California of migrant Hammond’s, Dusky, and Gray Flycatchers? Duskies get reported already in mid-August, but perhaps a very few of these are Grays or, even more likely, are Willow Flycatchers or dull, worn Pacific-slopes—which seem to get erroneously reported as a number of other empid species on a regular basis.

Plumbeous Vireos are rare to casual migrants west of the breeding range. A few individuals get reported already in late summer and early fall. ID issues between Plumbeous Vireos and dull Cassin’s Vireos abound, and single or poorly-lit photographs often “lie.” So, what are the earliest unassailable fall arrival dates of Plumbeous Vireo in various counties? It seems that they start during mid-September at the earliest. (The species also routinely remains on the breeding grounds into mid-September.) Any record before latter September needs to be very carefully documented, and past published records from this early probably need to be re-reviewed, as some of them may not pass muster today.

Clay-colored Sparrows reported from along the West Coast and anywhere inland south of the breeding range during August need to be carefully studied and documented. Yes, there are a small number of well documented records from these areas in very late August, even from as far away as southern California. But Brewer’s Sparrow is the more likely of the two during this month almost everywhere, even where Brewer’s is the rarer of the two species later in the fall. (And, of course, there are also ID issues with Chipping Sparrows….)

Lincoln’s Sparrows get reported annually from well outside the breeding range during the summer months. The well-known culprit: juvenile Song Sparrows. In the Pacific Northwest, where the Song Sparrows are darker, “too-early” migrant Lincoln’s Sparrows in August end up being Savannah Sparrows (B. Waggoner, pers. comm.).

Lincoln’s Sparrow, San Jacinto Wildlife Area, Riverside County, California. 7 January 2018. Photo by Mark Chappell.

Virginia’s Warblers have seemingly declined over the past few decades as a migrant and vagrant in much of California and perhaps elsewhere in the Southwest. Some reports do not adequately differentiate this species from dull Nashville Warblers, which may show only a faint wash of greenish on the back and wings (check the flight feathers) or only very faint yellow to the throat. Carefully study these parts of a potential Virginia’s Warbler for these colors before clinching the ID. Caution is warranted.

10 Some Avian Highlights from the West, June–August 2020 (P. Lehman) Alaska: Stunning photos were obtained of a Steller’s Sea-Eagle from along the Denali Highway in interior central Alaska on 30 August. A total of at least three and possibly four Oriental Greenfinches were discovered in Dutch Harbor’s (Unalaska, Aleutians) small, isolated spruce groves between 1 July-21 August. Local nesting was hoped for but not documented. A pair of “Eurasian” Barn Swallows successfully nested at Gambell, St. This locally-raised, juvenile "Eurasian" Barn Swallow was at Gambell, St. Lawrence Island, one of very, very Lawrence Island, AK, 18 August 2020. Photo by Clarence Irrigoo Jr. few such breeding records for Alaska and North America. In southeast Alaska, two male and a separate, lone, begging juvenile Black- headed Grosbeak along the Stikine River in late June established the first presumed breeding record for the state. (Thede Tobish, Suzi Golodoff, Zak Pohlen)

Male Black-headed Grosbeak, with a begging juvenile not far away, along Stikine River, AK, 29 June 2020. Photo by Zak Pohlen.

One of at least three Oriental Greenfinches present most of the summer near Dutch Harbor, Aleutians, AK, 2 July 2020. Photo by Bobbie Lekanoff.

11 British Columbia: A Tufted Duck summered in Kamloops 29 June-20 July. The biggest news of the summer was the provincial-first Gray-tailed Tattler along the north coast at Kitimat from 23-26 June, a seemingly odd date and one of only a small number of North American records away from western Alaska. (Melissa Hafting) Washington: The state’s first Nazca Booby was seen by a lucky few in the Seattle area on 14 August. The fact that it was frequenting inner, Puget Sound waters near a major Adult Gray-tailed Tattler, Kitimat, BC, 26 June 2020. Photo by Melissa Hafting. international port, suggests it could well have been a ship assist (perhaps even on a banana boat up from Ecuador?), which is the likely route or partial-route of choice used by a goodly number of southern boobies turning up all along the West Coast. The “Banana Boat Connection” is a likely scenario explaining how multiple Nazca Boobies have appeared inside San Diego Bay over the past several years. But riding ships is “what boobies do,” and is now part of the “natural” environment, due to the substantial rise in shipping over the last half century. Nazcas and other booby species are regularly seen on and over the bows of larger ships in the tropics, hunting flying fish scared up ahead of the ship (pers. obs.). Perhaps something else to consider is that a not-insignificant number of Nazca and Red-footed Boobies being found in California and elsewhere are not in good shape, often starving or potentially suffering from hypothermia (?), then taken to rehab where a fair number do not survive. Seems this is a more likely scenario for birds arriving here quickly aboard ships, rather than much more slowly under their own flight, in which case they might well drop out or turn around before getting this far north and potentially running into trouble. Washington’s 5th Northern Wheatear, also slightly early, was at Ocean Shores from 24-27 August. Impressive was the flock of 7 Hudsonian Godwits at Grays Harbor 10 August; the previous high count for the state was two birds. (Brad Waggoner, Ryan Merrill) Oregon: Fifth state records were established by a Yellow-throated Vireo in Jordon Valley on 3 June and by a Wood Thrush in Klamath County from 12-14 June. Southbound Hudsonian Godwits are very rare in Oregon, but the bird in Newport from 27-31 August was especially unusual in being a fall adult. Unusual for date was an early Buff-breasted Sandpiper on 9 August in Caltsop County, and which probably involved an adult. (Shawneen Finnegan)

12

Wood Thrush, Klamath County, OR, 13 June 2020. Photo by Frank Lospalluto. California: It was a good late-spring and summer for several species of “Southeastern” vireos and warblers in the state, with multiple over-summering Northern Parulas and Hooded Warblers, Yellow- throated Vireo, and four summer White-eyed Vireos (Mendocino, Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Diego). Some of the warblers may have bred (including successful Northern Parulas in Los Angeles County). (There were also several summering Hooded Warblers in Arizona, where a pair may have bred in the northern part of the state.) Even more unusual were nesting American Redstarts in San Francisco, a Chestnut-sided Warbler in Sierra County in July and another in Humboldt County through much of the summer, a July Yellow-throated Warbler in Humboldt, and a late-July Magnolia Warbler in the San Diego County mountains. June 17th was a good day to be inland at the Salton Sea, where a Leach’s Storm- Petrel was found near the north end and a Buller’s Shearwater was discovered near the south end! No obviously unusual weather occurred leading up to these two birds appearing there, which is typical of other mid-summer seabird occurrences there. A calling Common Ringed Plover was in Del Norte County on 16 August. This Buller's Shearwater, with atypical company, was at south end Salton Sea, CA, 17 June 2020,the second Salton Sea record. Photo by Curtis Marantz.

13 Lastly, a well-watched Common Crane summered in Modoc County, where first discovered in late July, and still present at the end of August. It indeed overlapped, date-wise, with the returning bird near Flagstaff, Arizona, so clearly two different individuals are involved. Two summering birds. Am I the only person bothered by over-summering occurrences in Arizona and California, for a species that should summer in northern Russia? Many years ago, a known escape Common Crane from upstate New York subsequently settled in southern New Jersey for a number of years, where it successfully interbred with a Sandhill Crane, also perhaps of uncertain provenance! The Arizona and California birds show no obvious signs of prior captivity. Thus, unless additional information comes to light, their origins will remain unknowable. But in any case, it is a strange situation.

Nevada: A Mississippi Kite spent much of the summer (1 July-23 August) near Las Vegas, and a Painted Redstart also spent the summer (8 June-2+ September) surprisingly far north in the state near Reno. (Martin Meyers)

Summering Mississippi Kite, near Las Vegas, NV, 1 July 2020. Photo by Justin Streit.

Summering Painted Redstart, Six Mile Canyon, near Reno, NV, 26 August 2020. Photo by Martin Meyers.

14 Utah: Most unusual was a basic-like plumaged Hudsonian Godwit at Willard Bay during mid-August, as was an adult female Bay-breasted Warbler present near Zion National Park during much of the month of August! Arizona: The big hit amongst birders was the sporadic appearance of multiple Eared Quetzals during the summer (early June through August) at multiple sites in the Chiricahua Mountains; the exact number of individuals is somewhat uncertain. A long-staying Tropical Parula in the Huachuca Mountains during June was seen by far fewer observers. Five or more Roseate Spoonbills appeared in the southern part of the state during August.

Male Eared Quetzal, Herb Martyr Road, Chiricahua Mountains, AZ, 13 June 2020. Photo by Dave Pereksta.

Male Eared Quetzal, Rucker Canyon, Chiricahua Mountains, AZ, 30 August 2020. Photo by Gary Rosenberg. 15

Two immature Roseate Spoonbills, Papago Tank, Santa Cruz County, AZ, 27 August 2020. Photo by Eric Kallen.

Montana: Yellow Rails had not been reported in Montana since 2012. That changed on 18 July, when two “singing” birds were encountered, one at Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge and the other at a wetland in Gallatin County, far from where the species had been reported previously; the latter bird was heard by many observers through 19 August. On 19 June, a moribund Mississippi Kite was found near Great Falls and delivered to a rehabilitator, where it soon died. This bird provided Montana’s 5th record and 2nd specimen. Also on 19 June, a singing Yellow-throated Vireo in Madison County established Montana’s 7th record. (Jeff Marks)

16 2018—A Little Bigfoot Year in California

By Steve N. G. Howell (all photos by Steve Howell)

Note: It turns out that 2020, as we all know, has been a bad year to try a Big Year, unless of course you’re limited to your local area. Longtime WFO member Steve Howell tried a local Big Year in 2018, as described here, and in 2020 he’s being “forced” to do another one! Wherever we live, birds offer a welcome avenue of escape and learning, and you might consider a local bigfoot year where you live—you only compete against yourself (and the birds and weather!) and it doesn’t require chasing all over the place in a car.

The idea of a Big Year has become part of today’s birding culture: “How many species can I encounter in a year?” Some people cover the whole of North America, others a state or province, others a county, a few even the world—it can be done at any scale. As 2018 moved into February, I wondered if I could find 200 species in the year just ‘on foot’ (which I take to include sitting on the deck or lying in bed— basically, no wheels) in the town where I live, on the coast of central California just north of San Francisco. To put 200 species here in perspective—after all, one could find over 300 species on foot in a day in Peru—a decent county year list is in the 260 to 280 species range. Thus, 200 in one small town seemed a plausible, but not necessarily easy goal. Plus, I’m out of the county about five months a year, and I threw in two more criteria—no scope and no chased birds. I have The Wrentit is a common resident in town and nothing against scopes, I just don’t like lugging one around. appropriately started off the year (heard from bed). This obliging bird was on 26 October 2018. And I simply prefer to find my own birds, or at least to see things as part of my regular daily routine, such as visiting a friend with lots of feeders when I go to the grocery store or the library. I didn’t plan any long hikes, just walked in and around town, mainly from my home to ‘downtown’ (just over a mile one-way) or around my neighborhood. This translated into birding within a 1.5 mile radius of my home.

The Bigfoot Year is an extension of the Bigfoot Hour, instigated in town many years ago by bird artist Keith Hansen, who decided to see how many species he could find in exactly 60 minutes, which usually meant a brisk walk around town—great for getting away from the drawing board or the computer. For anyone (well, any birder) who works at a desk, this is an excellent way to get some exercise as well as hone birding skills and develop a sense of the local birds. A Bigfoot Year is just longer, and without the pressure of seconds ticking by. Some days I was birding only 15–30 minutes, or casually from home while working, others for several hours when migration was good. I learned a lot about the local birds; got to know better many of the local humans I ran into (showing one person a roosting Northern Saw-whet Owl, another a roosting Barn Owl, and being given invites onto private property); and I got away from the computer. The Bigfoot Year probably involved 500 or so miles walked and at least 300 hours, but I didn’t keep careful track. It also confirmed that time in the field is the number one factor for finding birds. Location is also important, but there’s nothing special about my town versus any other town on the coast of California. In fact, I saw what most people would consider a ‘rare bird’ for only about a minute in about every 30 or 40 hours of birding—a pretty low return put that way. Fortunately, my birding isn’t about finding rare birds, although it’s definitely fun to come across something unexpected.

The birding year started from bed, with a Wrentit singing outside the window, and my January walks probably netted 100 or so species, but I wasn’t keeping track at first, and was only home for 12 days that month. The county birders, however, were keeping track of their county year lists, which prompted me to think of a lower key birding year simply walking in town. I thought 200 species might be possible and set that as a soft goal. I wasn’t going to die trying, but I would pay attention, and as the year went on I could check what I hadn’t found and strategize about where or how I might find it—a test of my local knowledge. Scarce local wintering migrants I found in January and February were Nashville Warbler and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and by 19 February I had logged 115 species on foot.

17 I was out of town all of March, so returning in April meant a quick boost of new species with the arrival of several spring migrants, plus watching the spectacle of migrating loons, sometimes more than 1000 per hour streaming past to the north. April ‘rarities’ were Surfbird (only my second record in 35 years, both during spring migration); the roosting Northern Saw-whet; Bank Swallow; Blue- winged Teal; and some ocean action in late month, with big feeding masses of birds, including Rhinoceros Auklet, along with both Fin and Minke Whales (OK, not birds, but the first of both species I’ve seen here from shore, to add to the more expected Humpback and Gray Whales, and the occasional Blue Whale). Seasons also changed, with the arrival of Olive-sided Flycatchers, Swainson’s Thrushes, and Hooded Orioles, and the steady departure of Fox and This Northern Saw-whet Owl was roosting Golden-crowned Sparrows, and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. The first over a quiet road for ten days in December Brown Pelican of the year flew by on 27 April and by the month’s end 2017 (here 23 December), but disappeared my Bigfoot total was up to 130 species. just before the New Year rolled around. Presumably the same individual was at the Early May produced my first ever spring Western Tanager in town, exact same roost for one day in April and then it was off to Ohio and The Biggest Week birding festival, a 2018—but not seen there again during the fun event and essentially the antithesis of birding mostly alone year. locally. The first morning back home from Ohio I wondered if I had really returned, as I found singing male Northern Parula and Rose- breasted Grosbeak a few blocks from my home! Plus two days later a Yellow Warbler, rare here in spring, although a fly-over pair of Lawrence’s Goldfinches rooted me back in California—another very good local bird, only my fourth county record. A week later, an unfamiliar song revealed how little I had learned in Ohio, and it took a while to track down the culprit, which was obviously one of ‘those eastern warblers,’ but which one? Finally seen, a nice Tennessee. A Parasitic Jaeger closed out the month (fairly common here in fall, but unexpected in spring) at 159 species. June tends to be quiet for migration, and thus no new species were added, but it was good to get a better sense for the breeding avifauna, and the flowering bushes were packed with juvenile Anna’s and Allen’s Hummingbirds. The chronological half-way score on 30 June was 160 species, but obviously now it would get harder.

Left: “That looked like a Blackburnian Warbler—wow, it is!” Right: A Townsend’s Warbler 10 minutes later, similar but also very different. 2 September 2018.

July, and post-breeding movement and migration were in play. Two juvenile House Wrens a few blocks from my home were a surprise, as were a juvenile Warbling Vireo and a Brown Creeper—all of which must have dispersed at least a mile or two from the nearest nesting birds. A very early Lesser Goldfinch (usually a later fall migrant) and the only Red Crossbills of the year were other July additions; the last adult male Allen’s Hummingbird lingered in the flowering bushes on my block till 4 July, the same late date as last year. August, finally, and real migration— except that I was out of the country almost the whole month, and by the end of August I had limped to 168 species, only eight additions in two months!

18 Back home on 2 September, however, and I had returned (unbeknownst to me) at the end of a major migrant push and early vagrant week in California as a whole. The very first warbler I glimpsed looked like a Blackburnian, clearly a jet-lag illusion and simply a Townsend’s. But a quick pish and wow, Blackburnian Warbler, for only a few seconds before it flew off through town, never to be seen again. I birded daily in September, and new birds came steadily, from migrant Lesser Yellowlegs and Red- necked Phalarope to a trio of juvenile Wood Ducks and a stunning immature male Broad-billed Hummingbird at Keith Hansen’s gallery (I had to wait three days after Keith found it before I was going downtown to the store and my routine stop at his gallery, and there it still was). Warblers in addition to the Blackburnian included Prairie, Chestnut-sided, Redstart, Black-and-white, Blackpoll, Nashville, Mourning, MacGillivray’s, Black-throated Gray, and finally Hermit along with the usual Wilson’s, Yellow, Townsend’s, Orange-crowned, and Left: Pileated Woodpecker is scarce locally and would be very easy Common Yellowthroats. And there was to miss during a year birding in town. This young male wandered no one place that held the birds—they around town for two weeks and even flew over my yard one day. 17 could be anywhere in town or, on most September 2018. days, nowhere. Add miscellaneous other Right: This young male Broad-billed Hummingbird was the eighth things, including White-winged Dove, hummingbird species Keith Hansen has found at his gallery feeders. Pileated Woodpecker, Lazuli Bunting, 4 September 2018.

Left: The previous two years a Gray Catbird visited my yard for a week in October, quite likely the same individual given it was feeding in the same berry bushes and given how rare the species is in California. In 2018 I ran into a catbird elsewhere in town, skulking as ever, but just long enough to snap a documentary image. 22 September 2018. Right: A possible quiz photo? In the field, however, the quiet high ‘tinkle’ call immediately identified this female Lawrence’s Goldfinch perched overhead with some Pine Siskins. September 2018.

Gray Catbird, Broad-winged Hawk, and another (!) 25 Lawrence’s Goldfinch, and it was the best September for many years (at least for the birder, if not perhaps for all the off-course birds). In a normal year I might have added 10 or 20 species in September, but the fab fall of 2018 averaged a new species daily and I closed out the month at 199 species. It seemed that 200 would be easy, but as we know with birding, who knows?

The good birding continued into mid-October, and by lunchtime on 1 October a Baltimore Oriole (only my second in the county) hit the 200 mark. It had been almost too easy, but in hindsight I had picked an above average year; I suspect in other years 200 species could be much more of a challenge. Later that week, Bobolink and Clay-colored

19 Sparrow on my street, and then on 8 October, with a birding friend visiting from out of town, I took a longer walk than usual. Our slow wandering turned up 81 species in the morning, including Western Wood-Pewee and Varied Thrush side-by-side, nicely marking the summer/winter transition, and then on a private lot where I had permission to wander a weird bird popped up—what the...? Ugh, hmm, I guess that’s a Painted Bunting. I know I like molt, but this bird was molting so heavily it was a challenge to even identify. I was able to follow its molt for a month, however, and it turned out to be a normal preformative molt both in timing and extent—that is, almost complete, just retaining some inner primaries, outer secondaries, and primary coverts. It was simply undertaken in the wrong place. Other October notables included Hammond’s Flycatcher, Ferruginous Hawk, Feral Pigeon (really—not annual in town), and another (!) Baltimore Oriole—but I never saw a Bullock’s.

Fall migration waned in November, and I was out of town much of mid-October to early December, although with 200 reached my momentum had slowed appreciably. But then, back home for the last three weeks of the year I looked at gaps in the list and thought where might I find some additional ‘missing’ species. I made a list of six possible new species at the nearby lagoon and took a morning walk there— I saw four new species, only two of which were on my list—Gadwall and Swamp Sparrow.

8 October 15 October

23 October 7 November

This immature Painted Bunting undoubtedly had been around for a week or two before I lucked into it on a patch of private land. It makes one wonder how many species are walked right by and never seen. The first day it was a bit of an ID challenge, but as the weeks went by it looked better, and on the last date it looked ready to head off to Mexico, ahead of the cold weather. On 8 October—a mess, with no tail or inner primaries; on 15 October, the tail and some primaries growing; on 23 October, getting there, the tail mostly grown but the outer primaries still growing; and on 7 November, done molting, but with some retained juvenile primary coverts, plus inner primaries and outer secondaries forming subtly paler and faded panels on the closed wing.

So much for local knowledge. The two unanticipated species were Black Vulture (a bird that has been wandering in central California for several years) and Common Merganser, far from common on the lagoon. Those plus a couple of American Coots at the sewage ponds brought me to 215 species with ten days to go—was 220 possible? In theory, yes, but the birds just weren’t there, although a Sandhill Crane flying low over town on 26 December came out of the blue—literally—and headed on south into the blue, number 216 and my first in the county. Strategic planning and luck produced a Burrowing Owl at dusk in the sewage ponds on 29 December, and a last check of the lagoon on 30 December netted a small group of Forster’s Terns, which closed out my Bigfoot Year at 218 species.

20 Of those, 38 species were either seen only once or involved only a single individual. On New Year’s Eve I’d agreed to go birding (by car) with a friend, and the weather turned out cold and windy, a perfect day for car birding and not for walking. And the chances of me finding anything new on foot had been ostensibly exhausted. Next year, which is now this year, I’ll just go birding and see what I see.

And the inevitable question: What were the biggest misses? Living somewhere with quite a few other active birders I know I missed at least 15 species seen in and around town, although some were when I was out of the county. The biggest gaps were Green Heron, one of which flew right over my home just as a friend knocked on the door to go on a birding walk (that was spring, and I figured I’d see one before the year was out—nope); a Tropical Kingbird found by another friend walking his dog, and seen by birders who chased it—it was on my regular walking route, but somehow eluded me for three days; the group of Wild Turkeys I saw a mile from home (while in a friend’s car); and the four Cattle Egrets (a county rarity) I found on the soccer field a half-mile from home while driving out of town to the airport—I half-considered going back home and walking out to see them, figuring I could chase birds I found myself... Had I added the turkeys and egrets that would have made a nice round 220 for the year, but in hindsight, 218 in 2018 has a ring to it.

Digital photography has made bird ID much easier, with time to study and compare images. Left: This locally rare Hammond’s Flycatcher three blocks from home was very obliging. Right: The same day I had found this late migrant Willow Flycatcher an hour or so earlier. Among other things, check the difference in bill sizes! Both 10 October 2018.

As birders should know, single photos can be deceptive. I immediately identified this sparrow as a nice Clay- colored (my third for the year; most years I see zero to one locally), but then the first photo I checked showed darker lores—better for Chipping. Other photos in different light showed the classic Clay-colored head pattern as well as a streaky brown rump. 12 October 2018.

21

I recommend a Bigfoot Year to anyone, anywhere, if you have the time and inclination. You only compete against yourself and the birds, and you can learn a lot along the way—what weather is best for swifts, how long do most migrant warblers stay around, when do birds sing and molt, and so on. And there’s no need to rush—much of my walking was simply wandering around to get some fresh air, take a friend’s dog for a walk, or puzzle out some molt or taxonomy problem. Depending on where you live, your Bigfoot Year goal might be 50 species, or 123 (no reason it has to be a round number!), or if you live in Amazonia, maybe 400 species. And it’s a lot cheaper than chasing around a country or even a county.

Lastly, a big thanks to local birders Keith Hansen, Catherine Hickey, Mark Dettling, and Diana Humple for their company from time to time, even though all of them saw at least one species I missed for the year!

Epilogue: After the success of 2018 I did another local Bigfoot Year in 2019, same rules, same routes—but as many California WFO members will recall, 2019 proved to be one of the quietest falls for birding in recent years. Even with more effort and all the knowledge gained in 2018 I only scraped to 203 species for the year. So far, 2020 is about on par with the previous years, which were all similar through the summer, and it’s all about the fall and more importantly the fall weather...

What could have been! Cattle Egret is a county rarity, but these guys were found while I was driving (I stopped for the photo!) and didn’t make the cut. 28 Nov 2018.

22 Excessively Generous Nuthatches? By Ed Pandolfino

Six years ago, in 2014, WFO member Steve Zamek found and documented with excellent photographs, Pygmy Nuthatches actively feeding Mountain Bluebird nestlings in the Sierra Nevada (Nevada County, CA). He and I published a note in Western Birds on this observation (https://tinyurl.com/yyz5xr7m). It turns out that such interspecific feeding (excluding birds feeding the young of brood parasites such as Brown-headed Cowbirds) is not all that rare. It has been documented in more than 80 different species pairs and Steve’s observation was only the second to document this particular species pair engaging in interspecific feeding. During Steve’s observations at least one or more of the nuthatches fed the young bluebirds repeatedly, persisting in spite of being chased by the male bluebird. At one point, a nuthatch even removed a fecal sac!

Steve’s good fortune has continued, because this past summer he recorded a video of Red-breasted Nuthatches feeding Williamson’s Sapsucker nestlings in Lassen Volcanic National Park. One of his videos is available for viewing on the WFO web site (http://westernfieldornithologists.org/wp- content/uploads/2020/09/SapsuckerAndNuthatch.mp4). This is apparently the first documentation of interspecies feeding for either member of this species pair.

There has been a good deal of speculation in the literature about what provokes such, clearly non-productive, behavior. In both these nuthatch cases, it seems that proximity and stimulation were key drivers. In each case the feeding nuthatches had an active nest in the same tree as the nestlings they were feeding. The young bluebirds and the young sapsuckers were actively begging (those familiar with Williamson’s Sapsucker nestlings know they NEVER shut up…). And, in both cases, the nuthatches were making prey deliveries to their “foster” nestlings at a rate much higher than that of the actual birth-parents. So, it seems that the instinct to shove food into any An adult male Red-breasted Nuthatch feeding a Williamson’s begging mouth was just too much for Sapsucker nestling in Lassen National Park. 7 July 2020. these nuthatches to resist. Photo by Steve Zamek.

23 Meet Liga Auzins: WFO Recording Secretary

I’ve been the Western Field Ornithologists Recording Secretary for 10 years beginning with the Annual Conference held in Palm Desert, California in October 2010. I’ve been a member for about 40 years. Catherine Waters recruited me for the position of Recording Secretary, and I’ve been elected annually since that time.

My life with birds began while studying geography at UCLA. By chance I enrolled in Dr. Thomas Howell’s ornithology class with corresponding field trips. I was a transplanted New Yorker who knew nothing of the West. Little did I know that this class would influence the course of my life. I inadvertently learned Southern California geography while studying birds and fell in love with both birds and places. Forty-five years later, this is what I like to do best.

My interests were further developed while helping Dr. Howell with his collection of Central American birds. It was here that I was introduced to my favorite bird, the Turquoise-browed Motmot (Eumomota superciliosa). I saw my first Turquoise-browed Motmot five years later near Monteverde, Costa Rica.

In the late 1970s I met Lloyd Kiff, curator of the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology. I was hired to help catalogue their vast oological collection. Lloyd led field trips throughout Southern California, where we revisited many birding hotspots pioneered by some of the early egg collectors. On one of these trips I saw my first California Condor. This annual trip to Mt. Pinos evolved into the infamous, but serious and consequential, Condor Watch and Tequila Bust. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the joy and adventure I experienced on these field expeditions would direct my life path for ensuing decades.

Also during this time I camped on Isla Partida in the Gulf of California. Here I assisted Dr. Judith Hand who was studying the Yellow-footed Gulls. At that time in the late 1970s the Yellow-footed Gull was considered a subspecies of the Western Gull.

Later I was on the initial Board of the Santa Monica Bay Audubon Society when it splintered from the Los Angeles Audubon Society. I spent the next many years working and birding at every available opportunity, in California and further afield.

Several months ago WFO formed a new subcommittee (of which I am a member) called the Diversity and Inclusivity Sub-committee to address the changing aspects of minorities in the U.S., especially with the ‘Black Lives Matter’ (BLM) movement. It is a new group in its nascent stages, but it will develop ways in which WFO can support minorities in the field of ornithology.

I now live in Garden Grove, California with my husband, Tom Wurster. For the last 20 years we have birded every free moment, mostly in California but with regular forays to southwestern states and occasionally further afield into Mexico and Central America.

24 Meet Wendy Beers: WFO Board Member

My interest in birding began as a youngster growing up on the East Coast. I remember seeing the winter cardinals in our yard and being excited to see “the first Robin of spring” on walks to school. During my college years I took an ornithology class at UC/Davis and was fascinated by the anatomic adaptations for flight. When I finished with my degree at Davis, it was my dream to go to veterinary school. That dream came true and I have been a practicing small animal veterinarian for 35 years. I lived in Auckland New Zealand in the late 80’s, and returned for a short gig to the east coast the following year. I have been in the Bay Area ever since. I have a special interest in veterinary dentistry and am still working part-time.

When I was still in college, my roommate’s boyfriend was a birder and they invited me to join them one weekend at the Gray Lodge Wildlife Area in Northern California. He recommended that I get a Peterson Field guide, and use a pencil to check off birds that I recognized. That field guide started me on a life’s journey of cataloging birds I had seen while travelling.

But unless those birds were brightly colored or easily identifiable, I didn't prog ress much past a basic birding level. A light bulb went off in 2013, when I said to myself, “OFrom:ther Wendy people Beers know how to tell sparrows and shorebirds Subject: second photo apart.Date: September Maybe 1, I 2020should at 8:03:06 take AM a PDT class and learn how as well?” To: chris swarth I took a beginner’s birding class with Anne Hoff (a WFO member) through Golden Gate Audubon Society, and that began an exploration of birds that continues to this day.

I first learned about WFO from Dave Quady. He was leading an annual trip to Susanville, California to see the Greater Sage Grouse. It was a terrific experience. As we were packing up, Dave spoke to us about WFO with great enthusiasm.

Following that trip, I contacted Suzanne Carota, joined WFO, and looked forward to joining the Sierra Trip during the spring of 2016. The Sierra 2016 adventure was wonderful. The members I met on that trip were so enthusiastic about WFO. I met the leaders Jon Dunn and Ed Pandolfino, Dave Quady and the inimitable Lena Hayashi. Also on the trip was John Harris, Wendy photo by in Cynthia Cuba Hudsonwith Orlando on Cuba H. 2018 Garrido, WFO trip.lead Orlando author H of Garrido, Birds fellow board member, who had been in a Leadof Cubaauthor, ofwith the BIrdshis taxidermic of Cuba, with treasures his taxidermic of the treasures endemic of the bird endemic Mammology Class with me at UC/Davis some birdspecies species ofof Cuba on on display display. Photo by Cynthia Hudson. 30+ years prior.

25

One other significant part of that trip was meeting the youth scholar, Diego Blanco. I was impressed with his participation, and the opportunity WFO had given him. The mission to help young birders explore their passion in pursuing careers in field ornithology is an important one. Having opportunities to meet luminaries of the ornithology world and like-minded peers is an experience they can get few other places.

I have been on some fantastic trips with WFO, meeting some of the most interesting and enjoyable people. In addition to the Sierra trip, I went to Cuba in 2018, and to Tasmania this past January. Coronavirus has curtailed those travels and conferences for a while. Like others, I am looking forward to safe travels in the future.

Sage Grouse pen and ink sketch by Major Allan Brooks, from, Birds of the Pacific States. By Ralph Hoffmann

26 Meet Homer Hansen: WFO Board Member

Growing up in rural southeastern Arizona, my backyard was a gateway to the natural world. I loved it all and when I went to the University of Arizona I dabbled with as many of the “-ologies” as I could, including geology and meteorology (inspired by our amazing monsoon storms and lightning shows), as I worked towards my BS in Ecology. Along the way, I found I had a real affinity for teaching, especially to young adults, and I incorporated education into my college studies. Then I studied ornithology under UA professor Steve Russell and found this joined together all the sciences - something I found fascinating. I completed a semester project on Inca Doves, but what captured my heart the most was learning the song of the Cassin’s Sparrow. I’d known this song growing up and I saw the songsters among the saltbush, but until then I did not know who these skulking birds were. Around this time Janet Ruth was mist nesting sparrows in the grasslands and I took as many opportunities as I could helping flush Baird’s, Grasshopper, Vesper, and Savannah Sparrows into the nets. This was the beginning of my personal journey into the world of sparrows.

After college I worked in the private sector assessing environmental contaminants on public and private lands. I also began teaching about birds through various organizations, including the Tucson Audubon Society and the University of Arizona Environmental Education programs. I discovered that I really enjoyed introducing people to birdwatching and I began offering workshops through birding festivals, which have tremendous outreach potential to the general public. I became heavily involved with the birding festival, Wings Over Willcox, in my hometown, and ultimately managed the festival for 17 years. When the opportunity presented itself, I formed the Sulphur Springs Valley Young Birders Club and the associated Arizona Young Birders Camp, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating youths about birds. If not for Covod-19, we would have held the 6th annual camp this summer. Working with young adults as they keenly observe the natural world is energizing and extremely fulfilling to me.

When I had the chance to become a WFO board member, I was very enthusiastic about the opportunity to outreach to even more youth. As Chair of the Student Programs Committee for the past five years, we’ve grown and diversified the program to offer more opportunities for high school and college students. Now, during the pandemic, we’re hosting Zoom programs for the young birders and they’ve gone ahead to form their own “council” to plan and organize these meetings. It’s my pleasure and honor to participate in all these Program activities and to advance the study and preservation of birds with our future ornithologists.

27 Riding Out the Pandemic in the Junipers

By Kimball L. Garrett (WFO Director)

Like so many other institutions and businesses, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County’s physical operations were virtually shut down in mid-March as the COVID-19 crisis accelerated. The museum, where I’m Collections Manager in the Ornithology Department, closed its doors to the public, all but the most essential staff were instructed to work from home, with exhibits and other programming rapidly transitioning to a “virtual” on-line presence. Managing the museum’s bird collections, numbering over 122,000 specimens, obviously requires regular hands-on work relating to preparation, labeling, storage, and conservation, as well as accommodating researchers. So for me the spring of 2020 became a crash course in how to manage a collection remotely, how to access and maintain the collection database remotely through a VPN, and how to fulfill our programming and outreach mandates in a virtual environment. In a hastily set up preparation “lab” in the garage I have prepared about 75 bird specimens since the “safer-at-home” orders, and even with a glacial internet connection I’ve updated the collection database by entering some 250 records. Community science work (including eBird review and iNaturalist identifications) is ongoing, and like most of us I’ve endured countless Zoom meetings over the last few months.

While there’s little upside to a serious pandemic, working from home has relieved me of a 65 mile, hour- and-a-half-each-way commute to the museum. Having worked at the museum since 1982, plans for an eventual retirement began to solidify, and my wife Kathy Molina (recently retired as the manager of the Donald R. Dickey Bird and Mammal Collection at UCLA) and I made the move from Tujunga, an enclave of the city of Los Angeles in the foothills northwest of Glendale, over the San Gabriel Mountains to Juniper Hills in February 2019. Our five acres are on the gentle north slope of the mountains at 3,600’ elevation, above the town of Pearblossom. [Pearblossom is well-known for its eponymous highway, famously depicted by artist David Hockney, as well as Aldous Huxley’s children’s book “The Crows of Pearblossom.” Huxley’s scientific pedigree notwithstanding (it includes famed evolutionists Thomas Henry Huxley and Julian Huxley), he probably mangled his Corvus identification, but after all it was just a children’s book.] We figured that a couple of years of enduring a horrendous commute would be balanced, in the long run, by the freedom of open spaces, proximity to some of the wilder natural areas of Los Angeles County, and a place where our border collies could finally have some sheep to herd (our sheep flock at Rancho de Los Juniperros is now up to eight). So, while I missed the smell of macerating bird skeletons, musty tubenose feathers in the mezzanine skin cases, and 30 year-old paradichlorobenzene that has impregnated the wooden drawers of many specimen cases, I was given the gift of an extra three hours a day not spent on the road driving to and from the Museum! View south to the San Gabriel Mountains.

28 The pandemic has allowed me more time to explore the juniper woodlands around our house, and particularly uphill to the south (where the San Andreas Fault runs less than a kilometer from us) where there are extensive stands of Joshua trees. Downslope, to the north, creosote becomes more abundant and junipers less so, but Joshua trees thrive there also. Given the chance to watch nature unfold through the spring and summer in this habitat, I was struck by the profusion of annuals and the flowering of perennials through April and May: carpets of violet-red Bigelow’s monkeyflower, patches of both blue and white “morphs” of sandblossoms (Linanthus parryi), sages from At my bird skinning nook in my garage at home. the diminutive chia to the abundant Dorr’s (desert) sage, paperbag bushes, desert mariposa lilies, etc. Huge waves of painted lady butterflies early in the spring gave way to impressive movements of California tortoiseshells a bit later. A malaise trap set up in our yard has continuously collected insects for ongoing museum surveys since late March, and I’m still hoping our entomology curator, Brian Brown, will tease out of the contents a new species or two of phorid fly. The “yard list” of lizards is up to 8 with this spring’s addition of long-nosed leopard lizard, but fortunately rattlesnakes remain sparse and very rarely encountered; I had a nice encounter with a large desert tortoise half a kilometer from the house in April. Our motion-activated camera trap has revealed activity through the night of black-tailed jackrabbits, desert cottontails and agile kangaroo rats, while manic white-tailed antelope squirrels zip around the seed feeders by day.

The “yard list” (which I generously define as a 1 km radius around the house) is up to 121 species since we arrived in February 2019, a modest total but without the benefit of any wetlands, riparian, native trees (larger than junipers or Joshua trees), or extensive irrigation. Though spring migration was unimpressive in volume, it’s easy to track here because relatively few species overwinter. Hummingbirds swarmed our feeders in March and April, with the abundant Costa’s and Anna’s being joined by several Calliopes and Rufous; after April Costa’s was our most abundant hummer, but as summer progressed numerous Anna’s reappeared, along with a few Black-chinneds each day and the occasional Selasphorus (presumably Scott’s Oriole; recently-fledged juvenile. Juniper Hills, California. 7 June 2020. Photo by Kimball Garrett. Rufous). Gray Flycatcher turns out to be the most numerous spring migrant Empidonax here, followed by Dusky, then Hammond’s, then “Western.” Lesser Nighthawks arrived on 19 April this year (later than last year), but the 14 March arrival of Scott’s Oriole was a bit earlier than last year. A singing Red-eyed Vireo in junipers and a lone eucalyptus across the street on 31 May was unexpected.

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As the desert habitats dried out through the late spring and summer, more birds took advantage of the water we have provided (birdbaths, tiny concrete lined “ponds”), so birdlife has been abundant in the yard. Of interest has been the arrival of early “molt migrants,” e.g. Bullock’s Oriole on 11 June (adult male) and 11 July, Lazuli Bunting on 30 June (ASY male), Western Tanager on 10 Jul (worn ASY male), and Black-headed Grosbeak on 11 July (ASY male). But most impressive has been the marked upslope movement of Bell’s Sparrows (ssp. canescens). Although these sparrows breed just a couple of miles downhill to the north, I first noticed the post-breeding movements with single birds 11, 19 and 26 June; by 3 July we were up to 13 birds, and there have been double-digits daily from then into the middle of August. The scruffy hatch-year birds which have predominated now (mid-August) mostly look pristine and adult-like. If the pattern follows last year’s, they’ll move on after September – perhaps back down into breeding habitats, or perhaps elsewhere.

Other odds and ends I’ve noticed include at least one Nuttall’s x Ladder-backed Woodpecker hybrid, most recently on 19 June. Both parental species have been regular visitors to our hummingbird feeders. Nightly Lesser Nighthawks present since April began to show signs of primary molt in July, and by 11 July I noticed inner primary molt in virtually all birds flying at dusk over our yard.

During my regular visits to Pearblossom Park, just two miles down the road, I was able to track two nesting attempts of Vermilion Flycatchers – Painted Lady, Joshua Tree N.P. the second resulting in three fledged young that Photo by Robb Hannawacker, NPS were still there in mid-August. A pair of cooperi Summer Tanagers was also present from May to August but there were no signs of nesting. The most abundant bird species in the park through spring and early summer was the Lawrence’s Goldfinch, whose interweaving of appropriated bird calls throughout their rambling songs never fails to impress!

Starting in mid-May I’ve been able to work at the museum a couple of days a week, and at this point it’s anybody’s guess when a full schedule will resume. In the meantime, in addition to the Zooming and skinning and databasing, I’ll be delighted to have time to watch the fall and winter unfold here in the junipers.

[For a “Virtual” bird walk through the junipers and nearby Big Rock Creek, take a look at the Natural History Museum’s web site: https://nhm.org/stories/la-bird-walk-juniper-hills-and-big-rock-creek ]

30 Daniel D. Gibson Receives the Swarth Award in Ventura

Daniel D. Gibson receives the Harry S. Swarth at the WFO conference in Ventura in 2018. L. to R., Jon L. Dunn, Dan, Thede Tobish, and Thomas Blackman.

The Harry S. Swarth award, an award given for excellence in publications of field ornithology in the West, was given to Daniel D. Gibson on 29 September 2018 during our WFO conference in Ventura, CA. The previous recipients were Robert Dickerman and Peter Pyle. Robert Gill, a previous WFO Board member, and now chair of Special Publications, wrote the nomination, a tedious task, given the voluminous publications authored by Dan, most of which pertained to Alaska ornithology, his adopted home for over half a century. Thede Tobish, a colleague of Dan’s for nearly a half century, came down to participate with Jon Dunn in giving the award. Jennifer Joliss, Dan's wife, was in attendance, too. In discussions with Jon prior to the presentation, Thede opined only half in jest that the criterion for this award was written with Dan's record in mind. Despite the presence of familiar faces, yet not familiar at WFO events, Dan was completely flummoxed when the award was given at the podium. It had come as a complete surprise, the intention by all who were involved in the presentation, including Jennifer. Congratulations Dan and many thanks to all for all you have contributed through the written word, and for all that you do for WFO. Dan is the Assistant Editor for Western Birds and works closely with Philip Unitt, our Western Birds Editor. —Jon Dunn

WFO Financial Practices Review Completed For the past six months Finance Committee chair Tom Blackman and WFO Treasurer Suzanne Carota worked closely with Wade-Howard and Associates (Certified Public Accountants) of San Diego to complete a review of our finance practices, financial statements, and internal financial controls. We’re pleased to report to our members that the many practices we employ are compliant with what is required by the IRS and are those financial practices that are expected of a small, well-run, non-profit organization.

The Wade-Howard report is divided into three sections, the first being a review of WFO responses on the IRS 990 form. We complete this form annually for the IRS and it is very important to maintain WFO’s 501 C 3, non-profit status. The form is quite complicated with over 275 questions. The second section of the report concerns our financial statements. Our treasurer produces statements monthly for the WFO board to review. No issues where found with these documents. WFO began using a computerized accounting system called APTOS several years ago. The third section is a review of our internal controls. The accountants made a special point to acknowledge the excellent financial statements and IRS reporting documents that are prepared regularly by Suzanne. Nice work, and thanks to Tom and Suzanne!

31 WFO Web Page is Updated and Improved!

The WFO web page has a new look and new functionality which we’re sure you’ll enjoy. After many months of work by web designer Todd Benton (BentonWebs), Tim Brittain, and Bryce Robinson, and with useful input from WFO members, the updated web page is now finished and on-line. A breeding plumaged Sabine’s Gull welcomes you on the Home Page where the latest issue of our journal Western Birds is prominently featured. The site has plenty of beautiful photos and birds, some that even soar across the screen. A flock of sandpipers, a wagtail, and Golden-crowned and White-crowned Sparrows grace the pages. Explore the Students Program, see photos of young birders and view the informative videos; check the Awards page to learn about those who’ve received honors; and on the Tour page you can read about past tours and anticipate the future when there’ll be new tours to sign up for. Current and past issues of Western Birds are all on-line and you can peruse newsletters going back to 2004. Our partners and bird committees are featured right on the Home Page. And, if you’re so inclined, you can even read over board minutes to learn about the many actions and decisions made by the WFO board of directors. It’s easier to renew your membership and to make a donation! We hope this new design will entice you to visit more often and that you’ll be able to easily find whatever it is you’re looking for. Go to www.westernfieldornithologists.org

University of New Mexico Receives NSF Grant for Museum Studies The University of New Mexico (in Albuquerque – location of the 2019 WFO conference) has received a $3 million award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for an innovative graduate education program centered in the University’s science museums. Over the next five years, 75 graduate students and 40 undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds will participate in this interdisciplinary training program that uses UNM’s world-class museum collections to investigate cultural, biological, and earth science trajectories and processes. The program, set to open to applications in January 2021 for Fall 2021 admission, leverages technical expertise and infrastructure in the Interdisciplinary Science Cooperative, which houses research centers with expertise in geochemistry, genomics, informatics, geospatial analysis, and high-resolution imaging and visualization, and the interdisciplinary expertise of the UNM Museum Studies Program.

Museums are a vital part of the research, education and public service missions of many universities, and NSF recognizes the enormous potential for new scientific discovery and student training that museum-based programs offers. This program encourages the development and implementation of bold, new models for STEM graduate education to “train the next generation of scientific leaders to develop the skills necessary to tackle complex societal problems.” [Thanks to Matt Baumann and Chris Witt]

32 Bob Gill Becomes WFO Editor of Special Publications

In the past, much ornithological research was published in book form. That has changed dramatically, especially among professional ornithologists, as the imperative to “publish or perish” has encouraged the more rapid dissemination of results. Instead of presenting decades or a lifetime of work in a massive tome, the vast majority of ornithological research now appears as journal articles that usually contain only part of a larger story. Still, there are some studies of birds that are better suited to a book-length treatment and outlets for their publication are relatively few. Recognizing this need, at WFO’s Ashland, Oregon conference in 2004, the board approved the creation of a series of monograph-length publications under the title, Studies of Western Birds. As a non-profit organization, the board saw this initiative worthy of the kind of service that we should provide to the broader ornithological Bob Gill with his hands full of juvenile community. I was appointed Editor of Special Bar-tailed Godwits (subspecies bauri). Publications to oversee this project. Photo by Dan Ruthrauff.

With the generous support of WFO members and other private and corporate donors, we’ve published a diverse series including a WFO Special Publication, California Bird Species of Special Concern (2008), and three monographs: The Biology of a Desert Apparition: LeConte’s Thrasher (Toxostoma lecontei) (2018); Trends and Traditions: Avifaunal Change in Western North America (2018); and The Birds of Gambell and St. Lawrence Island, Alaska (2019). All except the first are available in hard-copy and as eBooks through the WFO website.

The editorship of our special publications is now passing to the very capable hands of renowned shorebird biologist, Dr. Robert E. Gill, Jr. Bob is an emeritus scientist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, based in Anchorage, AK. He’s a life-long WFO member, has served on our Board of Directors, and was a co-editor of the Trends and Traditions monograph. Many of you are no doubt acquainted with Bob through presentations of his remarkable studies of the trans-Pacific migration of the Bar-tailed Godwit given at WFO conferences. We should all be very pleased that Bob has agreed to take on this new role in WFO. —Kenneth P. Able

Further your Donations to WFO When you purchase items on-line from Amazon, PayPal, EBay or FaceBook you can designate that a portion of the purchase price goes as a donation to WFO. In 2019, WFO received $815 from those who used this method of donation.

For example, AmazonSmile is a simple way to support WFO every time you shop there and there is no cost to you. Just sign up for AmazonSmile when shopping on Amazon. WFO is one of the listed charities that you can donate to. There is no extra cost to do this. Below are details on the other on-line companies that also allow donations: "Amazon Smile" donates 0.5% of your eligible purchase to charity "PayPal Giving Fund” - 100% of donation can go to WFO "EBay for Charity" -10% to 100% of sales goes to charity Network for Good (Facebook) - 3 to 5% of donation goes to WFO

33 WFO Student Programs Summer Zooming! By Susan Gilliland

WFO Student Programs is excited to be continuing their virtual meetings held live via Zoom – on a monthly basis throughout the year. During the Corona virus pandemic, WFO students now have a way to connect and keep the magic of birds and birding alive! As student youth councils, Justina, Calvin, Lara, and Santiago have graciously stepped up to volunteer to coordinate and host the WFO Student Programs Zoom meetings. The first virtual meeting was held on 5 June and featured Jon Dunn and Kimball Garrett who gave a very informative presentation: THE WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW (ZONOTRICHIA LEUCOPHRYS). Participants learned that there are five subspecies of White-crowned Sparrows: gambelii, nuttalli, leucophrys, pugetensis, and oriantha. Each differ in bill color and plumage. On 3 July the students hosted a photo & art meetup. August found the WFO students soaring high with California Condors as Teodelina Martelli presented. The September meeting featured Occidental College ornithologist Ryan Terrill – “Bird Evolution and Taxonomy!”

For more details on the Student Programs see http://westernfieldornithologists.org/about/students/

WFO Welcomes the Los Angeles Birders (LAB)

Los Angeles Birders (LAB) is a new non-profit organization dedicated to bringing birding, knowledge, and field experience together to encourage, educate, and empower birders. Though their focus is on birding in the greater Los Angeles area, all birders who share the same passion, regardless of where they may live, are welcome. Their website is www.LosAngelesBirders.org.

LAB hosts a series of monthly webinars, which are recorded and, on their website, and WFO is happy to link to the webinars including:

The first video presentation given on 9 June, was by Kimball Garrett on Vermilion Flycatchers. Titled, “Who Has Exploded? Vermilion Flycatchers, Birders, or Both?” Check it at: https://www.labirders.org/webinars/vermilion_flycatchers.html

The second presentation, made on 14 July, is titled, “White-Crowned Sparrow Subspecies” and it covers the five subspecies, their range, migration, field marks and more. For anyone who has struggled to identify the subspecies and to remember which one occurs where in the west, this video will be a huge help. See this presentation, along with links to an outline and to a paper that Jon Dunn and Kimball Garrett published in 1995, by going to: https://www.labirders.org/webinars/white_crowned_sparrows.html

The third video by Jon Dunn given on 11 August was on Short-billed and Long-billed Dowitchers. The identification and relations of these shorebirds have confused ornithologists for years. One species or two? And what of sub-species? In 1950, based on an exhaustive study carried out mostly with bird skins at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Frank Pitelka created order out of chaos. He determined that, in fact, there were two species at play. Knowing this then, birders re-doubled efforts to distinguish the two using binoculars and scopes rather than a shotgun. But separating them in the field remains one of the harder challenges for birders young and old. Jon has studied these birds for a long time and has much

34 to tell. To learn more, go to https://www.labirders.org/webinars/dowitchers.html

Normally such programs would be presented in person with the experts on hand to cover the material and answer questions. But normal is nowhere in sight. Fortunately, by now students (and many of the rest of us) are more than familiar with distance learning, Zoom, and on-line presentations. Why not take advantage of the new paradigm in learning to keep our members, young and old alike, engaged and improving field skills even though we can’t be together physically? And what better way to do this during the dog days of summer, than tapping the deep knowledge and energy of Jon and Kimball – and asking them to share some of their knowledge with all of us. The videos and accompanying PowerPoint presentation can help birders young and old ramp up their knowledge and help them learn important basics about field marks, distribution, migration and populations. The three videos they prepared are essentially short courses on each topic. Enjoy them!

Check, https://www.labirders.org/webinars.html

California Scrub-jay sketch by Jake Xia Jake Xia is 14 and lives in Glendora with his parents and two brothers. He became interested in birding last December when he noticed a red-shouldered hawk perching on a tree near our house, and that interest intensified when we started staying home due to COVID-19. He used to be more interested in marine animals when we had the luxury to travel. Since Jake and his brothers are all homeschoolers, we were able to go on frequent trips to the aquarium, zoos, and botanical gardens. I wish we started birding a lot sooner!

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Eggshell Consumption in Different Reproductive Stages and Broods of the Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana)

By Lara Tseng [Lara is an avid 13-year old birder and bluebird monitor in Orange County, California. She joined WFO this year.]

For my 2020 research project, I decided to study Western Bluebirds (WEBL) nesting in boxes in Orange County, CA, to determine if the breeding adults will consume sterilized, crushed eggshells as a source of calcium during the breeding season. It is generally understood that calcium is important to the breeding success of birds (Reynolds et al. 2004), and insufficient calcium can have adverse effects such as reducing eggshell thickness, clutch size, and egg volume (Mänd et al. 2000, Johnson and Barclay 1996). Prior studies have shown that many songbirds will consume crushed eggshells during the nesting season (Dhondt and Hochachka 2001), but I did not find the WEBL mentioned in the relevant literature. Since passerines do not store extra calcium in their medullary bones as some other birds do (Pahl et al. 1997, Prondvai and Stein 2014), and are known to consume calcium most heavily during the breeding season, it is reasonable to assume that the calcium is incorporated into their eggshells relatively quickly. Furthermore, because the normal diet of insectivorous birds does not include sufficient calcium for egg-laying (Graveland and Van Gijzen 1994), I hypothesized that, 1.) most eggshell consumption by WEBL would take place before and during egg-laying; and, 2.) more consumption would be seen during the first brood because the clutch size of first broods (mean = 4.94 eggs) is usually significantly larger than second brood clutches (mean = 4.06 eggs) (Guinan et al. 2020). Therefore, more eggs would require more calcium consumption for eggshell formation.

In 2019 I had already collected nesting data for the Southern California Bluebird Club (SCBC) at a city park in Mission Viejo, California, so I presented my project to the club to request their support. About a dozen volunteers committed to collect data from 64 nest boxes in backyards, golf courses, and public parks. The SCBC generously granted me $500 to fund project costs. I would also like to acknowledge one of my long-time mentors, Gillian Martin, Director of the Cavity Conservation Initiative and co-leader of the SCBC, who provided a wealth of knowledge about bluebird biology and cavity-nesting birds.

In my study, monitors provided sterilized chicken eggshells in a small removable container affixed to the top of each nest box with Velcro. The container held 5 grams of eggshell and was covered except for a small hole in the lid to allow bluebirds to access the eggshells. Monitors checked the containers at weekly intervals using the same model of digital scale (capable of measuring to 0.01 g) to determine how much eggshell was consumed by the bluebird. Weekly checks also recorded the status of the nest so that eggshell consumption could be indexed in relation to stages of the breeding cycle.

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While monitoring one of the four boxes from which I collected data, I observed a female pecking and swallowing eggshells. Three other monitors also observed this behavior by females. However, this was difficult to observe as monitoring most boxes is a quick process, with the exception of backyard boxes.

I received data from 49 boxes, which collectively produced 56 clutches and fledged 196 young. I ran a statistical analysis on my project using R (two- way ANOVA with Tukey post-hoc test) with the help of Jennifer Heppner, a Ph.D. student at the University of Nevada, Reno. This test showed that bluebirds do consume crushed eggshells, and there was a significant increase in eggshell consumption before and while eggs were laid.

Contrary to my hypothesis that consumption would be greater in the first brood, there was little variance in consumption between broods. This might have been because bluebirds had less time to forage for calcium during the second brood because fledglings were still begging to be fed, and there were only about 5-14 days between first and second broods. There was variation, however, in the consumption of eggshells as determined by the weight of shells among bluebird boxes, which may be due to the experience of the pair and the locality of the nest box, which may in turn influence the availability of other calcium sources. Pairs of bluebirds at thirteen boxes consumed less than 1 g of eggshells, eleven consumed 1 to 2.5 g of eggshells, and thirty consumed more than 2.5 grams during the period of data collection. I do not expect the outcome of my study to suggest that the degree of breeding success of the bluebirds in this project is correlated with the eggshell provisioning.

The time and effort required for this project was much greater than I anticipated. A lot of patience and perseverance was needed. The pandemic required me to find new ways of communicating with volunteers, and of ensuring quality data collection. I learned to put aside biases, and to objectively critique all aspects of my project. I have acquired new skills such as statistical analysis, writing clearly and concisely, and how to cite publications. Additionally, I learned the importance of thorough and systematic literature reviews, providing citations to back up specific claims, and making sure assumptions are not stated as fact. My interest in the topic of songbird breeding biology was increased as a result of my research, and so was my appreciation for the complexity of the topic. Problems posed by mentors and reviewers were sometimes tough, but very beneficial in the long run. I feel I have grown as an aspiring scientist and conservationist, and I am grateful to have my project published.

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Literature Cited Dhondt, A. A., and W.M. Hochachka. 2001. Variations in calcium use by birds during the breeding season. The Condor 103:592-598.

Graveland, J., and T. Van Gijzen. 1994. Arthropods and seeds are not sufficient as calcium sources for shell formation and skeletal growth in passerines. Ardea 55:299-314.

Guinan, J.A., P.A. Gowaty, and E.K. Eltzroth. 2020. Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (A.F. Poole, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY.

Johnson, L.S., and R.M. Barclay. 1996. Effects of supplemental calcium on the reproductive output of a small passerine bird, the house wren (Troglodytes aedon). Canadian Journal of Zoology 74:278- 282.

Mänd, R., V. Tilgar, and A. Leivits. 2000. Calcium, snails, and birds: a case study. Web Ecology 1:63- 69.

Pahl, R., D.W. Winkler, J. Graveland, and B.W. Batterman. 1997. Songbirds do not create long–term stores of calcium in their legs prior to laying: results from high–resolution radiography. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 264(1379):239-244.

Prondvai, E., and K.H. Stein. 2014. Medullary bone-like tissue in the mandibular symphyses of a pterosaur suggests non-reproductive significance. (Nature) Scientific Reports 4:6253.

Reynolds, S.J., R. Mänd, and V. Tilgar. 2004. Calcium supplementation of breeding birds: directions for future research. Ibis 146:601-614.

Male Western Bluebird. Photo by Mark Chappell

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Birding Bolinas Lagoon, California By Alex Cho

Birding during the summer is a little slow. There are still lots of places to go and see birds, but the numbers and variety seem much less than at other times. I decided to check Ebird for birding hot spots and noticed that Bolinas Lagoon was one and it was not too far from where I live. So, we headed off to the lagoon.

I read up about the lagoon and what to expect before heading out. I found the lagoon is located north of San Francisco in Marin County and was about 1 ½ hours away from me. It is a tidal estuary of about 1,100 acres and a very important place for many different animals. It has been deemed a very important and vital place for birds, especially during migration through the Pacific Flyway, by many organizations. The lagoon sits in a trough that was formed by the San Andreas Fault which runs through it. It is only a few feet deep even at high tide. The lagoon is the back bay of Bolinas Bay and is also fed by streams and creeks from the nearby mountains to the east.

The lagoon is well known for the many egrets and herons that live and nest there. As such, when we arrived, the first birds we saw were lots of Snowy Egrets wading in the lagoon and feeding. We also spotted a Belted Kingfisher on a wire as we drove by. There was no parking lot, but there were little pull outs on the road where we could stop and go down to the mud flats to get a closer look. That’s where I really started seeing a lot of birds. Groups of ducks were in different areas, lots of gulls were flying over, and Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets and Great Blue Herons were scattered all across the lagoon feeding. There were at least 200 Brown Pelicans on the opposite side, as well as Whimbrels, Curlews, and Canada Geese. On one of the sandbars there was a pod of seals and a group of cormorants right by them. I’d seen a sign saying to please not disturb seal pups, so the lagoon is also a place where seals give birth. There was so much going on and hundreds of birds— it was hard to keep up with all the activity!

The highlight of my trip was, while in the car, a kingfisher that came flying over. It hovered over the water, and dove down at an incredible speed, caught a fish and flew off. I was lucky to have had my camera in hand and was able to capture the action. It was awesome!! Belted Kingfisher in full dive over Bolinas Lagoon. Bolinas was a great place to bird, even in the Summer 2020. Photo by Alex Cho. summer and I can’t wait to go back in the fall and winter. It’s definitely a “hotspot”!

39 Trends and Traditions: Avifaunal Change in Western North America A book review with a Central Valley perspective. By Chris Swarth T & T is available for purchase through the WFO web page

Trends and Traditions, published in 2018, is the third monograph in the WFO series, Studies of Western Birds. Editors W. David Shuford, Robert E. Gill, Jr., and Colleen M. Handel assembled 25 technical papers that had been presented at the 2014 WFO conference in San Diego. The 466 page book contains many long-term studies and other papers that “look to the past and to the future for insights about long- term change.” In the thorough and insightful Introduction (pgs. 2-10), the editors make the case for the value of long-term studies in establishing the range of natural variation, temporal trends, and rare events needed to fully understand bird population trends. They also caution about the “shifting baseline syndrome” in which each new generation of scientists or policy makers may accept as “baseline” the environmental conditions that existed at the beginning of their career. Over time, this reference point comes to represent more recent degraded conditions (it shifts) rather than earlier, more intact conditions—a critical concept to recognize for setting targets and management objectives.

Few bird populations are static. Geographical ranges expand and contract, and populations rise and fall. Populations of many western species are declining, although not all. Some species are expanding their ranges or even moving southward in response to changing environmental conditions. The population status of some species can be difficult to detect because of inherent characteristics of a particular species or its unique breeding habitats. For example, special efforts and skills are required to determine the distribution of the Marbled Murrelets (Brachyramphus marmoratus) and Tricolored Blackbirds (Agelaius tricolor). For other species—consider the Gadwall (Mareca strepera), California Gull (Larus californicus), Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus), and Common Raven (Corvus corax)—breeding range expansions are relatively easy to detect and monitor. Tracking these shifts is a subject of intensive study by legions of field ornithologists and volunteers who work for government resource agencies, nonprofit research organizations, and universities. Climate change adds an immediate new dimension, now factored into most efforts to understand and calculate population trends. Documenting change is the first step. It’s much more difficult to identify the specific, fundamental causes of such change.

The papers in this volume are presented in four sections: Changes in Distribution; Population Trends and Changing Demographics; Response to Changes in Climate and the Environment; and Looking Back- Looking Forward. The papers cover a broad geographic and taxonomic scope, and over half are based on studies conducted for more than 30 years. Although I didn’t do a tally, it seems that the status of almost every species found in the West is addressed somewhere in this volume. Nearly two-thirds of the papers concentrate on birds in California (11 papers) and Alaska (5). Waterbirds are the subject of eight papers, and seven papers consider a single species or two closely related species.

A summary of the massive, long-term MAPS bird-netting data set (De Sante et al. pgs. 269-293) provides an in-depth look at population trends of 86 landbird species from throughout the west. Arter et

40 al. (pgs. 442-452) describe bird skeletal remains collected at archeological sites near San Diego that document 10,000 years of human occupation and avifaunal change. Three papers use historical avifaunas, mine existing data, and compile current references to focus on the big picture. Erickson et al. (pgs. 12-49) use Joseph Grinnell’s early 20th-century syntheses of California and Baja California avifaunas as a baseline to examine latitudinal changes documented over the past century for 672 taxa. Seavy et al. (pgs. 331-343) summarize studies that link climate change to phenology, distribution, population change, molt cycles, and even to alterations in a species’ morphology and physiology. Winker (pgs. 453-465) argues that we must make greater use of tools developed for studies of avian systematics, diversity, and population genetics to be more effective at understanding and managing the impacts of climate change on bird populations. He makes a strong case for the value of museum specimens in this endeavor.

This volume is of special interest to those who want to know more about the status of bird populations in the Central Valley and Sierra foothills. Three papers deal with Central Valley birds and two papers focus on breeding birds of the adjacent foothills. As the paper by Pandolfino and Handel emphasizes, “The scale and degree of human-induced transformation of the habitats in California’s Central Valley during the 20th century may be unequaled in any other area of North America.” The Central Valley is a dynamic region where we see habitats undergoing serious changes or outright destruction on an annual basis. Fleske et al. (pgs. 50-74) looked at changes in waterfowl abundance and distribution between 1973 and 2000. Aerial surveys conducted from 1973 through 1982 were compared with similar surveys conducted during 1998 to 2000. Data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Midwinter Waterfowl Index were also analyzed for comparison. Additionally, the authors captured and tagged 1,500 Northern Pintails (Anas acuta) and Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) in order to track their movements using radio telemetry. Total dabbling duck abundance (defined as “use days”) declined from 294 million use days per year during 1973-1982 to only 199 million during 1998-2000, a 32% drop. A decline in pintails was mainly responsible for the overall decline, although five duck species were stable or increased during this period. Waterfowl have shifted north in their CV distribution, evidenced by substantial increases in numbers wintering in the Sacramento Valley. This shift is attributed to extensive new wetland foraging opportunities as managed wetlands and flooded agricultural lands increased significantly during the study period, perhaps by as much as 75%. Post- harvest flooding of almost 100,000 ha of rice fields in the Sacramento Valley, beginning in the 1990s, was the largest contributor to the increase in wetland area, and the birds took advantage of it.

Stenzel and Page (pgs. 236-257) have censused wintering waterbirds on Bolinas Lagoon, a central California estuary in Marin County, since 1973. This is an unprecedented data set from which to examine population trends of coastal waterbirds, enabling these researchers to speculate about shifts that some waterbirds appear to have made to new suitable foraging habitat in the Central Valley. Their paper examined the relationship between rainfall patterns and bird abundance on the lagoon during two periods, 1972-1993, and 1998-2015. The latter period coincides with the switch from the after- harvest

41 burning of rice fields to field flooding in the Sacramento Valley. This important, positive change in agricultural practices has reduced air pollution and at the same time created significant new wetland habitat for waterbirds. Twenty-two of the 42 taxa (species and subspecies) that foraged at Bolinas Lagoon in winter also now regularly use flooded rice fields in the Sacramento Valley.

Taking advantage of their data set and the concept that, “long-term data from local sites can provide insight into processes at larger spatial scales”, the authors sought to relate changes in waterbird abundance at Bolinas Lagoon to regionwide precipitation patterns and to the increase in rice field flooding. They speculated as to whether the declines in numbers of some species on the coast could be caused by a shift in distribution to the Sacramento Valley to take advantage of the large increase in new wetlands there. Twelve of 22 taxa (6 ducks, 5 shorebirds, and the Pied-billed Grebe, [Podilymbus podiceps]) that had been increasing in numbers on Bolinas Lagoon during the first period of their study, decreased significantly after 1997. The decline strongly suggests a shift by the birds to another area (i.e., rice fields), a result well supported by other studies in the Central Valley. This paper shows the value of having a long-term data set, which has allowed these researchers to apply the results from a study in one area to changing environmental conditions in a broader geographical area.

Pandolfino and Handel (pgs. 215-235) compared results from 17 Christmas Bird Count (CBC) circles in the Central Valley in 1978-1979 with CBC counts in 2013-2014 to calculate annual rates of population change for 112 relatively widespread and abundant taxa. After grouping taxa into eight habitat categories, they calculated trends between the two time periods. Overall, the proportion of taxa that had positive trends (46%) was much larger than those with a negative trend (18%); about 33% of taxa showed no trend. They focused most of their attention on birds that primarily use wetland, riparian, or grassland/open country habitats. Of the 28 species that mostly used natural wetlands and flooded rice fields, 23 showed a positive annual percent change in population size. Cackling Geese (Branta hutchinsii), Black- necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus), Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auratus), Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus), and Gadwall (Mareca strepera) showed the greatest increases; unsurprisingly, Northern Pintails declined significantly. In riparian habitats, cormorants and Hooded Mergansers also increased. Of 19 species associated with grasslands, irrigated pastures, and agricultural fields, 12 species showed a negative trend. Grasslands are disappearing at a fast rate via conversion to orchards, vineyards, and housing development. Tricolored Blackbirds were not analyzed in this study, but this species in particular, is at great risk from loss of grasslands for foraging. The authors also analyzed Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data for species that occur year-round in the Central Valley, and for most taxa, BBS trends were similar to the CBC trends. A special plea is made for greater research and conservation efforts that focus on Central Valley grasslands.

Two papers by Purcell and Mori are based on a 27-year data set of breeding season surveys made in the oak woodlands within the San Joaquin Experimental Range near Fresno. They and their large cadre of field assistants studied 35 species every spring from 1986 through 2012 by making twice- weekly, 5- minute point counts at 210 points—virtually covering the entire 1,875 ha research station multiple times in March and April. Their first paper (pgs. 198-214) considers population trends. Based on two types of trend analysis, they found that 12 species increased, five species decreased, and 18 showed no significant change. Of greatest concern are the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea), Western

42 Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta), and Bullock’s Oriole (Icterus bullockii). Meadowlarks declined even though their grassland habitat in the study site and surrounding region did not. California Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica) results were especially interesting. Numbers began to decline markedly in 2004, a year after West Nile virus was first detected in California. By 2009, however, numbers were on the rise, apparently because surviving birds had developed resistance to the disease.

Purcell and Mori’s second paper (pgs. 344-373) modeled the importance of weather and climate variables to annual abundance in order to assess potential responses to climate change. Species’ sensitivity to cold and hot temperatures or to changes in precipitation were assessed, allowing the researchers to speculate how climate predictions might impact future population trends. Sensitivity to temperature was determined by comparing seven temperature variables (e.g., prior-year temperatures; within-season high temperatures, and number of days below freezing in year preceding counts) with seasonal bird survey totals. Four species (Anna’s Hummingbird [Calypte anna], California Scrub-Jay, Oak Titmouse [Baeolophus inornatus], and Bewick’s Wren [Thryomanes bewickii]) were sensitive to heat, and 18 species were sensitive to cold temperatures. Precipitation seemed to have little predictive value. Adding to these direct impacts on bird populations, a recent study (L. Kueppers et al. 2005. Modeled regional climate change and California endemic oak ranges. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102:16281-16286.) predicts that the range of the Blue Oak (Quercus douglasii), a keystone species in the California foothills, could decline by 59% over the next 80 years. Long-term data such as those of Purcell and Mori are crucial to prioritizing future research and conservation efforts.

Trends and Traditions will be a valuable addition to the literature on populations and conservation of western birds. The editors and authors have produced a comprehensive and timely reference work. A special shout out to WFO Series editor Ken P. Able, to copy editors Phil Unitt, Terry L. Hunt and Daniel D. Gibson, and other key contributors: Timothy W. Brittain, Sophie Webb, Catherine P. Waters, and Suzanne M. Carota. Field ornithologists and others with a serious interest in the current status and future trajectory of our bird populations, especially resource conservation specialists and decision-makers, will want to have this book on their bookshelf.

[Northern Pintail and Northern Shoveler pen and ink sketches by Major Allan Brooks, from: Birds of the Pacific States by Ralph Hoffmann.]

43 New Book on Urban-nesting Purple Martins Life Under the Fast Lane: Ecology and Conservation of the Bridge-Nesting Purple Martins in Urban Sacramento

by Daniel A. Airola published by the Central Valley Bird Club

Life Under the Fast Lane summarizes more than 20 years of field study and conservation efforts that focus on the unique population of Western Purple Martins that nests under bridges in urban Sacramento, California. Purple Martins have declined throughout California and are a state Species of Special Concern. The Central Valley’s last population has persisted in Sacramento, but it is rapidly declining. This book, the first Special Publication from the Central Valley Bird Club, presents detailed information on the species’ history in the region, its ecology and current population status, and the dramatic recent population decline caused by pesticides and land-use conflicts. Life Under the Fast Lane summarizes years of field work by Dan Airola and his many collaborators in their quest to investigate the nesting biology of martins and to persuade land-use planning agencies to adopt measures that would minimize disturbance to nest sites. Airola also describes the specific management actions and land-use planning practices that are needed to avoid impacts on nesting birds from ever-present urban development projects. Fascinating sidebar discussions describe behind-the-scenes stories of events and adventures that took place while Dan and fellow researchers were conducting martin research among the maze of elevated freeways crisscrossing urban Sacramento. Side bars also address critical questions that are often posed about Sacramento’s Purple Martins, such as: why don’t martins use nest boxes in Sacramento; the systematics of western martins; causes of martin coloniality; reasons for lack of conservation agency attention; and case studies describing ongoing threats from urban development. This book will be extremely useful and of interest to all who are concerned about the challenges of conserving Sacramento’s Purple Martins (and other Central Valley insectivorous birds), including environmentalists, birders, conservation biologists, land-use planners, and decision- makers. Life Under the Fast Lane can be ordered through the Central Valley Bird Club at: https://www.cvbirds.org/birding-resources/birding- references/life-under-the-fast-lane/ $25 for CVBC members; $30 for non-members. 156 pgs.; photographs, tables, maps, and appendices.

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Birds of Phoenix and Maricopa County, Arizona By Janet Witzeman and Troy Corman

Continuing a long, excellent tradition, Maricopa County Audubon, Arizona, announces an update to the 21st Century publication of the 3rd edition of Birds of Phoenix and Maricopa County, Arizona.

This complete and updated 3rd edition by Janet Witzeman and Troy Corman fully describes the 459 species found in the county and explains where to see them in this much changed region of the West. Since the 2nd edition, the human population of this strategic area of Arizona has almost doubled. This volume documents changes to the region and its birds over the past 20 years, and highlights the long- standing contributions and generosity of spirit of the region's birding community. This book encompasses a county of 9,266 square miles. A comprehensive publication covering an area of this size includes the contributions and observations by many birders from throughout the community. These important publications, that benefit all, would not be possible if not for the volunteers who make these projects possible.

Birds of Phoenix and Maricopa County includes: • Species accounts and seasonal distribution bar graphs • Maps of the region with 82 birding areas depicting roads and landmarks • Complete index of all birding areas • Changes to habitats and avian populations • Color photographs of birds, habitats, and birding areas

$26.95. 2017. 228 pages. Spiral binding with paperbound cover. Birding areas described by Tommy DeBardeleben and Laurie Nessel. This book can be purchased from multiple locations, including Amazon, or contact Maricopa Audubon at, https://www.maricopaaudubon.org/ for information. Proceeds from the sale support the conservation activities of Maricopa Audubon Society.

Look for a detailed review of this book in a future issue of Western Birds.

45 U.S. Court Victory for the Migratory Bird Treaty Act

WFO members should be happy with the recent court decision that strikes down the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back protections provided by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. This month marks the 104th anniversary of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA), which has been under threat by the Trump administration’s attempts to weaken its provisions that hold businesses accountable for bird deaths. In the August 11th ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Valerie Caproni made it clear that the administration’s rollback of the MBTA is unlawful and overturned its 2017 legal opinion. Judge Caproni ruled today that the legal opinion which serves as the basis for the Trump administration rollback of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act does not align with the intent and language of the 100-year-old law. In her ruling, the judge found that the policy “runs counter to the purpose of the MBTA to protect migratory bird populations” and is “contrary to the plain meaning of the MBTA”. The MBTA is a common-sense law that requires companies to do things like cover oil waste pits, which birds mistake for bodies of water, and implement best practices for power lines to reduce bird electrocutions and collisions, among other actions. If the administration’s legal opinion had been in place in 2010, BP would have faced no consequences under the MBTA for the more than one million birds killed in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

“Like the clear crisp notes of the Wood Thrush, today’s court decision cuts through all the noise and confusion to unequivocally uphold the most effective bird conservation law on the books—the Migratory Bird Treaty Act,” said Sarah Greenberger, Interim Chief Conservation Officer for the National Audubon Society. “With this court decision, the administration should abandon the regulatory process it started to make this illegal bird-killing policy permanent,” said Greenberger. (reprinted, in part, from the American Ornithological Society web page)

Harvard Ornithology Professor Bikes Across America

Dr. Scott Edwards, Professor and Curator of Birds at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, rode his bike across the country to see the landscape, meet people, and watch birds. Among other subjects, he studies neotropical bird diversity and the evolution of flightless birds. With the university closed due to COVID-19, Edwards decided to make a lifelong dream a reality. Now his ride has taken on even more meaning. On June 6, Edwards started pedaling from Newburyport, Massachusetts. He reached the Oregon coast on August 20. Asked about traveling in the West he replied,

“I noticed the Brown Creepers in Oregon seemed a lot bigger than the ones back in Massachusetts. I don't know if that's actually true, but it's something I wouldn't mind verifying. Traveling like this always raises a lot of questions. Whether I'll actually follow up on any with research, I don't know, but certainly casual and birdwatching kinds of explorations.”

Inspired by Black Birders Week and the racial justice protests, he soon added Black Lives Matter signs to his bike and began documenting his ride on Twitter. Over the 3-month trip, he amassed more than 11,000 Twitter followers and raised nearly $60,000 to support diversity initiatives in evolutionary biology. Read more about his trip at the National Audubon web site

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Western Field Ornithologists Officers & Directors

President: Jon L. Dunn, Bishop, California. [email protected] Vice President: John Harris, Oakdale, California. [email protected] Treasurer/Membership Secretary: Suzanne Carota, Long Beach, California. [email protected] Recording Secretary: Liga Auzins Wurster, Garden Grove, California. [email protected] Past President: Kurt Leuschner, Palm Desert, California. [email protected]

Board of Directors Matthew J. Baumann, New Mexico. [email protected] Wendy L. Beers, California. [email protected] Kimball L. Garrett, California. [email protected] Susan S. Gilliland, California. [email protected] Homer M. Hansen, Arizona. [email protected] Karen A. Havlena, Nevada. [email protected] Andy Mauro, Washington. [email protected] Kristie Nelson, California. [email protected] Ed Pandolfino, California. [email protected] Bryce W. Robinson, New York. [email protected] Diane Rose, California. [email protected] Christopher W. Swarth, California. [email protected]

Western Birds Editor: Phil Unitt, [email protected] Western Birds Assistant Editor: Daniel Gibson, [email protected] WFO Web Site: Tim Brittain, [email protected] Newsletter Editor: Christopher Swarth, [email protected]

Thanks to all those who submitted articles, essays, artwork, photographs, and announcements for this newsletter. The deadline for the December issue is 5 December. Send stories, announcements, photographs, or other items to [email protected].

Hoover Wilderness, looking east to Mono Lake. 2014. Photo by Chris Swarth

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